Iranian police seize several tons of narcotics

Iran's law enforcement police squads have discovered and seized over 5 tons of different types of narcotics in the country's Northern province of Alborz since the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 2011), a provincial police commander said. Commander of Alborz and Tehran's Law Enforcement Police Alireza Akbar-Shahi said on Tuesday that 5,180kg of narcotics have been discovered throughout the province during the last 9 months after police intensified war on drug traffickers and tightened control over transit routes. The commander added that police forces also disbanded 15 drug rings involved in drug trafficking activities in Alborz and other provinces. Akbar-Shahi further announced that the police have also arrested 6,918 individuals for drug related crimes during the aforementioned period. Iran shares border with the world's number one opium producer, Afghanistan, and drug-traffickers view this region as the start of a transit route to drug markets in Europe. 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. According to the UNODC, these days, 93 percent of the world's opium is produced in the neighboring Afghanistan, 60 per cent of which is destined for the EU and specially US markets, and the main transit route is Iran, where the country's dedicated police squad risk their lives to make the most discoveries of drug cargoes, disband drug-trafficking gangs and organizations and much more in a bid to rescue not only the Iranian youth but also all those living in Europe and the US.