TEHRAN – The Iranian anti-narcotics police chief Majid Karimi, and his Kuwaiti counterpart Mohammad Qabazard emphasized the need for enhanced cooperation to fight against drug trafficking.

During a video-conference meeting on Sunday, Karimi referred to the increase in narcotics production in Afghanistan and the serious threat facing Iran and the regional countries, highlighting the need to increase bilateral cooperation in combating drug trafficking.

“Over the past [Iranian calendar] year (March 2020- March 2021), Iran seized 1,367 tons of narcotics. Meanwhile, the destination of most of these drugs was the Persian Gulf littoral countries, including Kuwait, but it has been prevented through the vigilance and timely action of the Iranian anti-narcotics police.

We have also discovered over 20 tons of methamphetamines over the aforementioned period,” he noted, IRNA reported.

Karimi said holding regular meetings and sharing information among the two countries is necessary, expressing Iran’s readiness to expand joint cooperation.

Qabazard, for his part, expressed readiness to increase interaction and cooperation with the Iranian anti-narcotics police in all areas, adding, “We hope to achieve more success in the future by increasing the exchange of information on drug trafficking networks with Iran.”

Iran’s anti-narcotics measures

Iran seized some 1,000 tons of narcotics in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended March 20, 2020), putting the country in first place in the world, Eskandar Momeni, the secretary-general of Iran’s drug control headquarters, said in July 2020.

After the Islamic Revolution (in 1979), 3,800 were martyred, 12,000 were wounded and disabled in the fight against drug trafficking, Momeni announced.

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.

According to UNODC, Iran remains one of the major transit routes for drug trafficking from Afghanistan to European countries and has had a leading role at the global level in the drug-control campaigns.

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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