SEMNAN -- Police in Semnan confiscated 21kg of opium in Shahroud over the past two days.

It said police in Sharoud confiscated 14kg of opium found in a house which they raided. Three people were arrested and handed over to the local judicial authorities after the raid.

The report further said that police in Shahroud seized 7kg of opium hidden in a car and arrested three people suspected of involvement.

Iran is part of a major international drug trafficking route originating from Afghanistan and Pakistan and stretching as far as the Persian Gulf states, Europe and beyond.

The country accounts for 80 percent of the opium and 90 percent of the morphine intercepted in the world, according to the International Narcotics Control Board IRNA reported.

Official reports say more than 3,100 Iranian police officers have lost their lives in drug-related battles throughout Iran over the past twenty years. Iran's anti-drug campaign, they say, costs the country 800 million dollars per year.

meanwhile, Iranian police seized two tons of hashish, destined for Europe, as well as a sizeable amount of arms from an international drug trafficking gang in the Persian Gulf city of Hormozgan on Thursday, ten people suspected of involvement were arrested.

Provincial Police Chief Hamid-Reza Hashemi said that the haul originated from Iran's "eastern neighbors." drug traffickers hid their wares in packs camouflaged as foodstuff, he added.

The huge confiscation was made after three months of intelligence operations conducted by the country's security forces, Hashemi said. Drug traffickers were intending to trade the haul with firearms.

Police arrested all members of the drug gang as well as members of an arms trafficking gang.

Hashemi said that since the start of the current Iranian year on March 20, 2002, police in Hormozgan Province have succeeded in confiscating 8 tons of drugs from international traffickers which shows a 130 percent rise in amount of confiscations compared with the figure of the same period a year before.

The increased trafficking and interception of illicit drugs has been attributed to the rise in poppy cultivation in Afghanistan and improved intelligence operations by Iranian police, he added.

Iran, which lies on the crossroads of the international drug trade, has for years been pursuing a fierce battle against drug traffickers leaving thousands of its police officers killed or injured.

The campaign, according to officials, costs the country 800 million dollars per year.