Commander of Sistan and Baluchestan Border Guards Second Brigadier General Mohammad Mollashahi broke the news on Tuesday, saying that the drugs were confiscated in two separate operations in the past 24 hours.
During one operation the police managed to seize 1,488kg of opium in an armed clash with the traffickers. The perpetrators fled through the borders into the neighboring country, he said.
In another operation, the police busted a vehicle attempting to smuggle 73kg of opium into the province through Saravan border regions. One smuggler was detained during the operation.
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 World Drug Report 2019” 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.
MNA/4874424