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Iran Reports 12-Time Increase in Drugs’ Seizure at Airports

06 March 2010 03:32 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Iranian officials announced that the country’s airport police have seized 737kg of drugs in the current Iranian year (ending March 20) which shows a 12-time hike, APA reports quoting farsnews.com web-page.
"Iranian airport police have seized a total of 737 kilograms of various kinds of drugs in the country’s airports this year," Iran’s Airport Police Chief Brigadier General Nabiollah Heidari said.

"There has been a twelvefold increase in comparison to last year’s figures which was just 63 kilograms," he added.

According to General Heidari, the seized drugs included 472 kilograms of crystal meth, most of which was discovered at Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA).

"Some 4,898 people involved in drug smuggling have also been arrested at Iranian airports this year," he went on to say.

"Airport police are to equip the country’s airports with 10 body scanners which will help in uncovering drugs and nabbing smugglers," he asserted.

The anti-drug squads of the Iranian Law Enforcement Police have intensified their countrywide campaign against drug-trafficking through staging long-term systematic operations in recent months.

The Iranian anti-narcotic police have always staged periodic, but short-term, operations against drug traffickers and dealers, but latest reports - which among others indicate an improved and systematic dissemination of information - reveal that the world’s most forefront and dedicated anti-narcotic force (as UN drug-campaign assessments put it) have embarked on a long-term countrywide plan to crack down on the drug trade since the beginning of the current Iranian year (starting on March 20).

Commander of the anti-drug squad of Iran’s Law Enforcement Police announced early January that the country’s police forces have discovered 340 tons of different types of illicit drugs during the first 9 months of the current Iranian year.

According to the statistical figures released by the UN, Iran ranks first among the world countries in preventing entry of drugs and decreasing demand for narcotics.

In November, Iran’s DCH announced that the country would seal all its borders within two years to control drugs smuggling.

Each year, the government spends hundreds of millions of dollars erecting barriers along the borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan and pumping resources into checkpoints. Officials said the battle against drug addiction and trafficking costs Iran US$1 billion a year.

According to the UNODC, these days, 93 percent of the world’s opium is produced in the neighboring Afghanistan, 60 per cent of which is destined for the EU and specially US markets, and the main transit route is Iran, where the country’s dedicated police squad risk their lives to make the most discoveries of drug cargoes, disband drug-trafficking gangs and organizations and much more in a bid to rescue not only the Iranian youth but also all those living in Europe and the US.