Arastu Torkaman Manesh said on Monday that during this period Police forces dismantled 17 narcotics bands and arrested 1,987 smugglers.
He also pointed that 70% of the narcotics consignments were confiscated on the maritime transit route before reaching Bushehr province.
Despite high economic and human costs, the Islamic Republic has been actively fighting drug trafficking over the past four 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.
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.
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