50% Rise in Drug Seizures in Iran's Southern Province
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The seizures of illicit drugs in Iran’s southern province of Bushehr over the first half of the current Iranian year, which began on March 21, have increased by 50 percent compared to the same period last year, the governor general of the province announced.
Speaking during a meeting in Bushehr on Sunday, Mostafa Salari paid tribute to the efforts made by the police forces of the province in combating the spread of drugs in the country.
“The amount of drug seizures in the country over the first half of this year has decreased, while the figure in the Bushehr province had one-and-a-half times increase (compared to the same period last year),” Salari said.
“This indicates that Police have made the province insecure for those who transfer and trade drug,” he noted.
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 says accounts for 90% of the world’s opium.
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.