TEHRAN – The anti-narcotics police have dismantled the largest drug-trafficking gang in the northwestern part of the country, Rahim Jahanbakhsh, West Azarbaijan province’s police commander, has announced.

Over 900 kilograms of narcotics were discovered from the smugglers in Urmia, he said, IRIB reported on Saturday.

The anti-narcotics police officers traced the haul of narcotics through extensive operations, arresting members of the drug trafficking cell while trafficking drugs, he explained.

In this operation, the border guards succeeded in seizing 6 vehicles and arresting 7 smugglers and discovered 902 kilograms of various drugs, including 101 kilograms of heroin and 801 kilograms of morphine.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has praised Iran’s efforts to fight narcotics trafficking. 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 Iranian calendar year 1399 (March 2020-March 2021), putting the country in the first place in the world.

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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