Iran Border Police Seize 68 Tons of Illicit Drugs in 11 Months: Commander
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Commander of Iran’s Border Police Brigadier General Qassem Rezaei announced that over the past 11 months, the border guards have managed to prevent smuggling of 68 tons of various kinds of illicit drugs.
Speaking to the Tasnim News Agency, Brigadier General Rezaei said Iran is a vast country and shares common borders with 15 other countries, adding that 60 percent of the Iranian borders have been sealed with physical barriers.
He further pointed to drug seizures and said that over the first 11 months of the current Iranian year (March 21, 2017 – February 19, 2018), the border guards prevented smuggling of about 68 tons of narcotics into the country.
The commander added that most of the drugs have been captured in clashes with drug smugglers in places where there had been no physical barriers.
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.
