TEHRAN – Forces of Iran’s Coast Guard have seized a big haul of opium off the coast of the southwestern port city of Bandar Mahshahr, according to Tasnim.

Lotfali Pakbaz, chief of Khuzestan Province’s border police, said on Thursday that the drug haul was seized following thorough intelligence activities in the Persian Gulf’s northern waters.

Pakbaz said the Coast Guard captured two light fishing boats filled with illicit drugs in the operation.

1,588 kilograms of opium was found in the two boats, he said.

The drug smugglers had plans to smuggle the haul of drugs into Iran, he said, adding that three people have been arrested in the operation.

In comments on July 9, Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations Majid Takht Ravanchi said 3,815 Iranian police forces have lost their lives and over 12,000 others have been wounded in the war against drug trafficking over the past 40 years.

In the past three decades, Iran has seized approximately 11,000 tons of different types of narcotics and psychotropic substances, he added, saying that in 2018 alone, Iranian forces carried out 1,557 operations against drug traffickers, seizing approximately 807 tons of different types of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.

According to the “World Drug Report 2019” of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, in 2017, Iran had seized “the largest quantity of opiates … accounting for 39 percent of the global total,” Takht Ravanchi stated.

MH/PA