Interior min.: Iran to intensify war on drug lords

Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli underlined that the country will intensify its fight against drug lords and mafias in the current Iranian year (starting on March 21, 2014).

He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony to unveil 20 new books on fighting drug-trafficking.

Rahmani Fazli stressed that the government is committed to tighten control over border crossings and increase border control to decrease drug smuggling into the country.

According to IRNA, he said that decreasing counter-security incidents along borders especially through blocking boundaries in southeastern and northwestern Iran are among our plans to block supply of narcotics in the current year.

Iran aims to completely seal off its eastern borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan by 2015 to prevent drug smuggling and infiltration of armed groups.

In early 1990, Iran began to build a “wall” to seal its approximately 1,800 kilometer-long border with its neighbors to control drug trafficking and infiltration of armed rebel groups or bandits.

According to official figures, some 3,700 members of Iran’s security forces have been killed in the three-decade-long battle with drug traffickers and armed groups.