TEHRAN (Press TV) -- Iran has seized over 5000 kilograms of illicit drugs as the West intensifies pressure to cut drug-smuggling aid to the country.

Iranian border police stationed in the country's southern province of Sistan-Baluchestan seized 3358 kilograms of opium, 22 kilograms of hashish and 275 ampoules of hallucinatory drugs in an ambush on Friday.
During the operation, 22 drug runners entering Iran through its southern borders with Pakistan were arrested.
Iran's eastern province of South Khorasan was also the scene of clashes with armed drug smugglers. The police operation ended in the confiscation of 1576 kilograms of opium, four heavy machine guns and three satellite phones. Six smugglers were arrested.
Iran leads international efforts in fighting illicit drug trafficking and is second to Pakistan in opiate seizures, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
With 3,500 law enforcement officers killed in two decades of drug busts, the UN credits Iran for the seizure of 80 per cent of the opium netted around the world in 2007. Iran seized 900 tons of narcotics coming from Afghanistan last year.
The confiscation comes as the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (G5+1) have attempted to politicize the issue, threatening to cut international aid for combating drug smuggling into Tehran should the country refrain from halting its nuclear program.
The director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime Antonio Maria Costa has warned of a 'heroin tsunami' in Europe if the drug interdiction by Iran is weakened, however.
“We know the continuing loss of life in Iran as the country maintains a careful watch of its borders at the heavy, heavy sacrifice of so many of their policemen,” he says.