TEHRAN – Anti-narcotics police forces have dismantled a drug-trafficking gang and confiscated nearly 3.7 tons of narcotics in Sistan-Balouchestan province, the provincial police chief has said.

The anti-narcotics police officers traced the haul of narcotics through extensive operations, arresting members of the drug-trafficking cell while trafficking opium and hashish in Iranshahr city, Brigadier General Mohammad Ghanbari said on Friday.

He went on to say that 3.5 tons of opium and 202 kilograms of hashish, were seized along with a handgun and some ammunition.

The police force is actively present working to fight drugs, he further highlighted.

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

Despite high economic and human costs, Iran has been actively fighting drug-trafficking over the past decades. 

The country has spent more than $700 million on sealing its borders and preventing the transit of narcotics destined for European, Arab and Central Asian countries.

Iran seized some 1,000 tons of narcotics in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended March 20), putting the country in the first place in the world, Momeni said in July.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has praised Iran’s efforts to fight against narcotics trafficking on the occasion of International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

The organization also officially announced that the world’s first place in the discovery of opium, heroin, and morphine belongs to Iran.

UNODC World Drug Report 2020 estimates that in 2018, 91 percent of world opium, 48 percent of the world morphine, and 26 percent of the world heroin were seized by Iran.

Iran’s drug control efforts led to the seizure of 266 tons of different types of drugs during the period of April-June 2020, a 20 percent increase compared to the same period in 2019.

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