ISLAMSHAHR, Tehran Province -- Chief of Police in Tehran's suburb of Islamshahr said on Saturday that over 30 kg of illicit drugs have been seized.

Hassan Abutourabi told IRNA that the police were tipped off that a drug-trafficking gang was trying to transport an opium consignment from eastern borders to the area, but it was caught by the police.

Iran lies on the crossroads of a major drug trafficking route originating mainly from Afghanistan.

More than 3,000 members of Iran's armed forces have been killed in cross-border clashes with drug traffickers over 20 years of instability in neighboring Afghanistan.

According to official estimates, Iran's anti-drug campaign costs the country about dlrs 800 million annually.

It is credited with 80 percent of the opium and 90 percent of the morphine intercepted worldwide by the International Narcotics Control Board.