Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 8
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Iran’s police seized over 1,815 kilograms of various drugs, including opium, hashish and heroin from smugglers in the country's southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan.
Police forces seized 1,419 kilograms of drugs in an armed clash with smugglers near the city of Saravan last night, the province's police commander, Brigadier General Hossein Rahimi said Apr. 8, Fars news agency reported.
In another operation, the police seized 396 kilograms of narcotics from smugglers near the city of Zahedan, he added.
In total, 1,545 kilograms of opium, 194 kilograms of hashish and 76 kilograms of heroin were seized in the two operations, Rahimi said.
The smugglers were trying to carry the drug cargos to central Iran, the police commander said, adding that five smugglers were arrested in the operations.
Iran is situated 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, over which 74 percent of opium is smuggled.
The fight against drug trafficking annually costs Iran about $1 billion, according to the official estimates.
According to the statistics, there are about two million drug users in Iran.