Drug-trafficking bands smashed in Iran’s capital
By Trend
Tehran’s police forces have dismantled three drug-trafficking bands in the Iranian capital city.
Brigadier General Hossein Rahimi, the provincial police chief, said that Tehran police forces have annihilated three big drug trafficking bands during the widespread operations carried out in the last 72 hours, ISNA news agency reported May 20.
The police forces seized over one ton of various drugs including morphine, opium, hashish and heroin from the smugglers, he said, adding that 15 members of the groups were arrested in the operations.
The police commander said that the smugglers had imported the narcotics from the country’s southeastern borders in Sistan and Baluchestan province and had carried the cargo to the suburbs of Tehran, were identified and arrested by security forces.
In similar development Iran’s police seized over 2,757 kilograms of drugs in armed clashes with smugglers in province of Sistan and Baluchestan.
The police forces arrested five smugglers in the clashes, the deputy police commander of Sistan and Baluchestan province, Ahmad Taheri said May 20.
The police forces also seized two AK-47 and two hunting guns from the smugglers, Taheri said.
Iran sits on a major drug route between Afghanistan and Europe, as well as the Persian Gulf states. The Islamic Republic shares about 900 kilometers of common border with Afghanistan, over which 74 percent of opium is smuggled.
The fight against drug trafficking annually costs Iran about $1 billion, according to the official estimates.
According to the statistics, there are about two million drug users in Iran.
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