Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli has criticized international organizations and European countries for not fulfilling their commitment to the fight against drug trafficking. “While they (European countries) claim that they uphold anti-money laundering laws, they do not even provide any information on combating money laundering and drug-related money laundering,” Rahmani Fazli said Wednesday at a gathering of ambassadors and heads of Iran’s missions overseas, Mehr News Agency reported. “Last year, we seized 1,200 tons of drugs and 830 tons of opium,” said Rahmani Fazli, who is chairman of Iran’s Drug Control Headquarters, adding that Iranian forces engaged in more than 2,000 armed clashes with smugglers and members of international drug cartels. Iran is a main transit route for moving heroin and opium to western markets from Afghanistan, where opium production has soared since the 2001 downfall of the Taliban. Thousands of Iranian police and security forces have been killed in drug-related operations, mainly in the border regions, since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
