Iran police seize one ton of narcotics in southern Iran

Iranian Police forces have confiscated over one ton of narcotics during an operation in Iran’s Kerman Province, a local police commander says.

Colonel Rouhollah Abbasi said the operation was carried out in the city of Bardsir late on Saturday.

Abbasi added that a smuggler was killed and another arrested during the operation.

He said 880 kilograms of opium and 139 kilograms of hashish were seized inside a car belonging to the drug traffickers.

Abbasi noted that security forces opened fire on the car when its driver refused to obey a police order to stop the vehicle.

Iran, which has a 900-kilometer common border with Afghanistan, has been used by smugglers as the main conduit to take narcotics to other countries.

Over the past three decades, the country has spent millions of dollars to seal its borders and prevent the transit of narcotics destined for European, Arab and Central Asian countries.

The war on the drug trade, a lucrative business originating in Afghanistan, has also claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 Iranian police officers.

According to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Iran accounted for the highest rate of opium seizures (80 percent) as well as heroin hauls (30 percent) in the world in 2013.