TEHRAN – More than 3,400 smugglers of narcotics were arrested through a plan called Zafar, literally meaning victory, Tehran police chief Hossein Rahimi announced on Monday.

Anti-narcotics police officers arrested 3,424 drug distributors and discovered more than 2 tons of narcotics in the implementation of the 18th phase of the plan, he explained, IRNA reported.

He went on to say that eight houses were officially sealed and 19 firearms were discovered from drug dealers.

World record of narcotics seizure

Iran holds the record for narcotics confiscation in the world, Eskandar Momeni, the director of anti-narcotics police headquarters said in December 2021.

In the Iranian calendar year ended in March 2021, about 1,200 tons of drugs were discovered, the highest rate in the world.However, great achievements in the field of countermeasures have been gained, and the United Nations has officially announced that 90 percent of opium, 70 percent of morphine, and 20 percent of world heroin have been discovered by Iran.

In the Iranian calendar year ended in March 2021, about 1,200 tons of drugs were discovered, which was the highest rate of discovery in the world.

According to figures released by the United Nations in 2000, Afghanistan produced about 200 tons of narcotics, but in 2018, it has grown to 9,500 tons.

In other words, the production of narcotics has increased fifty times, which has doubled the need for prevention efforts, he highlighted.

Despite the conditions caused by the coronavirus outbreak and the imposition of harsh sanctions against the country, fortunately, with the efforts of anti-narcotics police in 2020, drug detection increased by 41 percent.

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

The 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 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.

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