Baku, Azerbaijan, May 7
Trend:
Iran’s police seized over 4,720 kilograms of drugs in armed clashes with smugglers in the country's southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan.
The police forces arrested five smugglers in the clashes, the police commander of Sistan and Baluchestan province, Brigadier General Mohammad Ghanbari said, the official website of Iran’s police reported May 7.
The police forces also seized two AK-47 and a Colt gun from the smugglers, Ghanbari added.
Iran sits 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.