Police Seize Large Narcotics Cargos in Eastern Iran
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian law enforcement forces seized two cargoes of illicit drugs in separate checkpoint operations east of the country.
A local police commander told Tasnim on Sunday that law enforcement forces in Iran’s eastern city of Ghaen, in the country's South Khorassan province, seized 2.4 kilograms of crack and 277 kilograms of opium in two separate operations.
The Crack haul, the police chief said, had been hidden in a truck’s dashboard, while the cargo of opium was discovered from a passenger car.
In recent decades Iran has been hit by drug trafficking, mainly because of its 936- kilometer shared border with Afghanistan, where the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said 74% of the world’s opium was produced in 2012.
Iran is on a major transit route for drugs being smuggled from Afghanistan to Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the country's war on drug-traffickers has claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 Iranian police forces over the past 34 years.
According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Iran is netting eight times more opium and three times more heroin than all other countries in the world combined.
