ZANJAN -- Deputy Police Chief Brigadier General Amir-Ali Amiri here Sunday revealed a 140 percent rise in the smuggling of narcotics into the Islamic Republic since May.

Amiri, speaking in a ceremony held to introduce new provincial police chief, recalled a drop in the smuggling of drugs into the country during the reign of Taleban militia in Afghanistan.

He regretted that the business has been on an upward trend since the beginning of the new Iranian calendar year of 1381 (May 22, 2002) despite pleges made by other countries to uproot the cultivation and smuggling of drugs, IRNA reported.

Iran lies on an international drugs trade route, which originates from Afghanistan and Pakistan and stretches as far as the Persian Gulf Arab states, Europe and beyond.

More than 3,100 members of Iranian armed forces have been killed in clashes with drug traffickers since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

According to official estimates, Iran's anti-drug campaign costs the country 800 million dollars each year.