Baku, Azerbaijan, June 7
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Iran's police seized about 500 kilograms of various drugs from smugglers in the country's capital city of Tehran.
Police forces also arrested 115 drug sellers during the last night operation, Tehran Police Chief Hossein Sajedinia said, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported June 7.
He further said some 600 drug addicts were detained in the police operation, adding the detained people will be transferred to two special addiction treatment camps.
Iran is situated on a major drug route between Afghanistan and Europe, as well as the Gulf States. The Islamic Republic shares about 900 kilometers of common border with Afghanistan, over which 74 percent of opium is smuggled.
It was reported that some 490 metric tons of drugs were seized in the country during the last fiscal year (ended on March 20).
The fight against drugs annually costs Iran about $1 billion, according to the official estimates.
The statistics also say there are about two million drug users in Iran.
Last February, Rouzbeh Kardouni, the head of Social Vulnerabilities Office at the Iranian Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare said that annually about 450 metric tons of opium is used in Iran, which is equal to 42 percent of total opium consumption in the world.
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