Azerbaijan, Baku, June 27 /Trend S.Isayev, D. Khatinoglu/
The Western countries have put ban on exporting drug-sniffing dogs to Iran, Second-in-commander of the Iranian police, Brigadier General Ahmad-Reza Radan said, Khabar Online website reported.
Radan noted that aside from dogs, the drug-detecting electronic equipment exports to Iran were banned as well.
"Despite these sanctions on elementary equipment that helps Iran to fight drug smuggling, the country was able to seize about 500 tons of drugs during the last solar year - 115 tons of that amount were seized during the first 3 months of the Iranian calendar," Radan underscored.
The police commander went on to note that since the Islamic Revolution some 3,700 police officers have been killed as a result of confrontation with the drug smugglers.
Iran shares about 900 kilometers of common border with Afghanistan, through which about 74 percent of opium smuggling goes through.
The Islamic Republic has, in recent years, intensified its fight against drug smuggling.
In 2012, Ahmad-Reza Radan said about 300 tons of drugs have been discovered, and seized in Iran, during the last year (Iranian year ends on March 20).
In October 2012, Deputy head of Iran's Drug Control Headquarters Taha Taheri said there are more than 100,000 prisoners in Iran, serving sentences for drug-related crimes.