The announcement was made by Brig. Gen. Seyed Ali Mehrabi, Deputy Commanding General for Army Operations, who added that the four vehicles belonging to the drug traffickers were set on fire as they were hit by rockets and 20-mm machine guns fired by Army Aviation helicopters.
He went on to add that all the passengers along with 1.5 tons of opium were burnt during the operation in Shahdad district, located 95 kilometers of driving distance from Kerman city.
Earlier this January, in a joint operation by the police departments of Semnan, Qom, and Kerman provinces, a huge drug trafficking ring was disbanded and over 2 tons of illicit drugs were seized.
Sharing borders with Afghanistan has made Iran a destination for drug traffickers in recent decades. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Iran is netting eight times more opium and three times more heroin than all other countries in the world combined. Iran has invested huge amount of budgets and many lives have fallen victim to stop drugs going through Iran to eastern Asia and Europe.
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