Commander of the Border Guard of the Law Enforcement Force of the Islamic Republic of Iran (NAJA) Brigadier General Ahmad Ali Goudarzi made the announcement on Saturday, saying that following the intelligence activities, the police forces of the province have identified and dismantled a drug gang who intended to smuggle a big consignment of narcotics to the province from southeast borders of Iran.
He added that the forces engaged in an armed clash with the smugglers, during which 1.273 tons of narcotics were seized.
The consignment consisted of 1,222 kilograms of opium and 51 kilograms of hashish, he said.
Two smugglers have been arrested and two vehicles seized in this regard, Goudarzi noted.
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.
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.
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