During the past ten months, around 30 tons of illicit drugs were seized in the southern Fars Province, said Iran Police Chief Brigadier General Hossein Ashtari. Speaking at a press conference in Shiraz on Wednesday he said, “Nearly 12,000 people involved in drug trafficking were identified and arrested in the province by the anti-narcotics police, and 30,000 kg of different types of narcotics were seized in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year that ends in March.” Iran, which has a 900-km common border with Afghanistan, has been used as the main conduit for smuggling Afghan drugs to narcotics kingpins in Europe. More than $700 million has been spent on sealing its borders and preventing the transit of narcotics destined for European, Arab and Central Asian countries.
