TEHRAN (FNA)- The drug combat squads of Iran’s Law Enforcement Troops have seized more than 3,000 kilograms of illicit drugs in the Northwestern province of East Azarbaijan, a provincial police commander announced on Saturday.


“We have seized and discovered a sum of 3.2 tons of various types of narcotics, including heroin, crystal, opium, hashish and grass in the first nine months of the current Iranian year (started March 21, 2013),” East Azarbaijan Drug Combat Police Chief Hamid Ali Baqeban told reporters on Saturday.

He noted that the discovery shows a 97 percent increase as compared with the last year’s corresponding period.

“We have arrested a sum of 6,938 drug traffickers in the said period,” Baqeban said.

Iran lies on a major drug route between Afghanistan and Europe, as well as the Persian Gulf states.

Iran has recently established a central database and strengthened police-judiciary cooperation in a new effort to combat organized crime.

Every year, Iran burns more than 60 tons of seized narcotics as a symbol of its determination to fight drugs.

Iran has always complained about the EU and other international bodies' lack of serious cooperation with Iran in the campaign against drug trafficking from Afghanistan.

By Fars News Agency 

 

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