Iran dismantles drug trafficking band, arrests two foreign members
Iran’s Intelligence Ministry has dismantled a drug trafficking band in northeastern city of Mashhad, arresting two non-Iranian members.
The two-member band was destroyed in an operation on Thursday night, according to the Intelligence Ministry's office in Khorasan Razavi province.
Eight kilograms of heroin were seized from the drug traffickers in the operation.
Iran says it has managed to confiscate the world's largest amount of narcotics over the past years despite illegal US sanctions.
Iran has over the past four decades suffered "irreparable financial and human losses" in its anti-drug fight, Iran’s permanent representative to Vienna-based international organizations Kazem Gharibabadi told a special commemorative event of the 63rd session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in June.
Last year, he added, a total of 30 Iranian forces were killed and injured in 2,319 operations, which led to the dismantling of 1,886 international and domestic smuggling rings and the seizure of over 950 tons of drugs, including 47 tons of heroine and 17 tons of methamphetamine.
"The Islamic Republic has discovered and confiscated the world's largest amount of narcotics for many years while it has been subject to unilateral, illegal and illegitimate US sanctions and deprived of the international community's help," Gharibabadi said.
Iran, which has a 900-kilometer common border with Afghanistan, the global hub of opium production, has been used as the main conduit for smuggling Afghan drugs to narcotics kingpins in Europe.
One-third of the common border with Afghanistan is located in Khorasan Razavi province.
Despite high economic and human costs, the Islamic Republic has been actively fighting drug-trafficking over the past 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.
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