68 Tons of Illicit Drugs Seized in 11 Months

The border police chief announced that over the past 11 months, the border guards have managed to prevent the smuggling of large consignments of illicit drugs. Speaking to Tasnim News Agency on Saturday, Brigadier General Qassem Rezaei said Iran is a vast country and shares common borders with 15 other countries, adding that 60% of the Iranian borders have been sealed with physical barriers. He pointed to drug seizures and said over the first 11 months of the current Iranian year, which started on March 21, 2017, the border guards prevented smuggling of about 68 tons of narcotics into the country. The commander added that most of the drugs have been captured in clashes with drug traffickers in places where there had been no physical barriers. Iran, which has a 900-kilometer common border with Afghanistan, has been used as the main conduit for smuggling Afghan drugs to narcotics kingpins in Europe. Despite high economic and human costs, the Islamic Republic has been actively fighting drug trafficking over the past decades.