US Complicit in Narcotics Production in Afghanistan: Iranian Official
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Secretary-General of Iran’s Anti-Narcotics Headquarters Brigadier General Eskandar Momeni deplored some Western countries’ lack of cooperation in the campaign against illicit drugs and said the US forces even support production of narcotics in Afghanistan.
In a speech in Tehran on Tuesday, Brigadier General Momeni highlighted Iran’s achievements in the anti-drugs campaign and said the European countries not only do not help the Islamic Republic but are also blocking the country’s campaign.
“Drug production in Afghanistan is increasing every year. Now there is no doubt that US forces and occupiers in Afghanistan are contributing to the drug production process,” the official added.
They are working to create insecurity in the region by any means, including supporting drug production in Afghanistan, he added.
“In a trip I had to one of these European countries, an official of the country, which is located on a major drug (transit) route, announced that they had only discovered 2.5 kg of illicit drugs in a year, which surprised me greatly,” the official went on to say.
Iran, which has a 900-kilometer common 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, the Islamic Republic 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.
The war on drug trade originating from Afghanistan has claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 Iranian police officers over the past four decades.
According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the Islamic Republic is netting eight times more opium and three times more heroin than all other countries in the world combined.
