TEHRAN – Five hundred kilograms of narcotics have been seized in Omidiyeh, Khuzestan province, according to Omidiyeh’s prosecutor general.

Following large-scale intelligence operations, police forces seized 500 kilograms opium in Omidiyeh which was destined to Ahwaz, Mehr quoted Arsalan Karimi as saying on Saturday.

Karimi added that two drug smugglers were arrested and handed over to court.

Iran, which has a 900-kilometer-long border with Afghanistan, has been used as the main conduit for smuggling Afghan drugs to narcotics kingpins in Europe.

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

Over the past three decades, Iran has seized approximately 11,000 tons of different types of narcotic drugs 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,” the envoy stated. 

MH/PA