Iran’s police seize over 10 tons of narcotics in 3 days

Iran’s drug combat squads have seized more than 10 tons of illicit drugs in two separate operations in the last three days, a senior police commander announced on Saturday. Commander of the anti-narcotics squad of Iran's Law Enforcement Police General Ali Moayyedi said that the UAE Police cooperated with his forces and helped in the seizure of the 10 tons of narcotics. “Fortunately, due to the good interaction between Iran’s anti-drug police and the UAE police, we have managed to disband a drug gang which operated as an international mafia network and transited and smuggled narcotics in the Persian Gulf region," Moayyedi said. He added that his forces also “discovered and seized more than 7 tons of illicit drugs and arrested 10 drug traffickers in the first operation”. He underlined that in the second operation and concurrent with the first one the police seized over three tons of narcotics from drug traffickers in the Southern Hormozgan province. Iran lies on a transit corridor between opium producing Afghanistan and drug dealers in Europe. Owing to its rigid efforts, Iran makes 81 percent of the world's total opium seizures and has turned into the leading country in drug campaign. Each year, the government spends hundreds of millions of dollars erecting barriers along the borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan and pumping resources into checkpoints. Officials said the battle against drug addiction and trafficking costs Iran US$1 billion a year. Iran has recently established a central database and strengthened police-judiciary cooperation in a new effort to combat organized crime.