Police Chief of Sistan and Balouchestan province Brigadier General Mohammad Ghanbari said the big consignment was captured after a series of intelligence operations and during a battle between the antinarcotics force and a gang attempting to smuggle the drugs into the country in Saravan border regions.
The busted consignment contained 1,969 kilograms of opium, 88.5 kilograms of hashish, he said.
The Islamic Republic has been actively fighting drug-trafficking over the past three decades, despite its high economic and human costs. The war on drug trade originating from Afghanistan has claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 Iranian police officers over the past four decades. 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.
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