Police Chief of Qazvin Province Brigadier General Mehdi Hajian said that following comprehensive intelligence activities, the police forces of the province seized 440 kilograms opium in collaboration with police forces of Hormozgan Province during an operation which was destined to central parts of the country form southern Iran.
Two smugglers were arrested and has been handed over to the judicial officials, he added.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has been actively fighting drug trades originating from Afghanistan in the past four decades, despite its high economic and human costs. The country has spent more than hundreds of millions of dollars on sealing its borders and preventing the transit of narcotics destined for European, Arab and Central Asian countries.
According to reports, in 2018 alone, Iranian forces carried out 1,557 operations against drug traffickers, seizing approximately 807 tons of different types of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.
According to the latest World Drug Report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, in 2017, Iran had seized the largest quantity of opiates, accounting for 39% of the global total.
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