Azerbaijan, Baku, September 16 /Trend, N. Umid/
Iran's police seized some 1320 kilograms of various narcotics including opium and hashish in the country's south-eastern Province of Kerman in confrontation with drug smugglers, the police chief of the Kerman Province Hossein Chenarian said, Fars news agency reported.
Two smugglers have been arrested and one other killed, the report said.
Iran lies on a major drug route between Afghanistan and Europe, as well as the Persian Gulf states. The Islamic Republic shares about 900 kilometers of common border with Afghanistan, across which about 74 percent of opium is smuggled.
According to official estimates, the fight against drugs annually cost Iran about $1 billion. Statistics also say that there are about 2 million of drug users in Iran.
It was reported that 500 tons of drugs were seized during the last solar year and more than 215 tons during the first 5 months of the current solar year (started on March 21).
Every year, Iran burns more than 60 tons of various seized drugs as a symbol of its determination to fight drugs.