TEHRAN – Kermanshah Province’s anti-narcotics police have confiscated 1,795 kilograms of different illicit drugs over eight months, from March 21 to November 22, Mehr reported.

Iran’s calendar year started on March 21, 2019.

Alireza Daliri, the anti-narcotics police chief of Kermanshah, said on Saturday that the confiscation of illicit drugs in the province has witnessed a 39% growth in comparison with the corresponding period of last year.

A total of 4,900 smugglers and culprits have been arrested in various operations in the province which indicates a 3% increase compared to the corresponding period last year, Daliri said.

He further said 105 kilograms of opium have been confiscated by police forces of Kermanshah in collaboration with Alborz and Lorestan provinces during the last two days.

In this regard, one smuggler has been arrested and a vehicle seized, he added.

Iran is at the forefront of the fight against drug trafficking. The drugs are mainly destined to lucrative markets in Europe and Persian Gulf Arab states.

The drugs originated from neighboring Afghanistan. 

John F. Sopko, U.S. special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, said at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC, in November that the counternarcotics effort in Afghanistan "has just been a total failure", the Business Insider said on December 5.

Opium cultivation covered 263,000 hectares in Afghanistan, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. That was down from 328,000 hectares in 2017 but still more than any other year since 1994.

MH/PA