Azerbaijan, Baku, Mar.16/ Trend F.Milad/
Iran's border guards have identified and dismantled two human trafficking rings at the northwestern borders of the country, Iranian Border Guard Commander Brigadier General Hossein Zolfaghari said on Saturday.
Ten human traffickers were also arrested, the Mehr News Agency quoted Zlofaghari as saying.
Iranian guards also saved 17 Azerbaijani nationals at the snowy border of Maku, he said.
According to Zolfaghari, 10 drug traffickers were also killed during clashes with Iranian border guards.
More than 137 kilograms of drugs and 5 Kalashnikov weapons were sized from the traffickers, he added.
With a 900-kilometer (560-mile) common border with Afghanistan, Iran has been used as the main conduit for smuggling Afghan drugs to narcotics kingpins in Europe.
Iran has spent more than $ 700 million to seal the borders to prevent the transit of narcotics destined for European, Arab and Central Asian countries.
The war on drug trade originating from Afghanistan has claimed the lives of nearly 3,700 Iranian police officers over the past 30 years.