TEHRAN- Iranian security officials have dissolved a ring engaged in illegal importation of guns and ammunition in the country’s southeastern borer province of Sistan-Baluchestan and over a dozen persons were also detained during a series of operations.

General Doostali Jalilian, the provincial police chief, told reporters on Tuesday that police forces, working in tandem with intelligence agents, discovered the activities of the smugglers in the province’s northern and southern regions and immediately launched an operation to dismantle them.

After a string of well-coordinated raids in the cities of Chabahar, Iranshahr and Zabul, he said, smugglers were ultimately apprehended. 

They were captured during several searches on their hiding places, the commander added.

According to Jalilian, the smugglers’ possessions included 18 handguns, six Kalashnikov assault weapons, 183 live bullets, and nine magazines.

The police commander added that a total of 18 people were arrested in connection with the ring. Four cars and 4 motorcycles were also seized from the members.

The province of Sistan-Baluchestan, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, has recently been the site of a number of terrorist assaults on both security forces and civilians.

Terrorist groups targeting Iranian interests in the country’s southeast and southwest have been linked to a number of governments in the Persian Gulf region.

Iran’s security forces have been watchful and successful in defending the country’s borders and foiling most terrorist plans by foreign-backed anti-revolutionary elements. 

In Sistan-Baluchestan province earlier this month, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Ground Force disbanded a group of terrorists, killing two gunmen and seizing six others.