IRGC Navy Seizes Contraband Goods in Persian Gulf

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) naval forces seized contraband goods from smugglers in the Persian Gulf waters.
The IRGC Navy’s coast guards patrolling the Persian Gulf waters near Iran’s Qeshm Island encountered several vessels carrying contraband goods, local officials told FNA on Monday.

The smugglers discharged the contraband commodities, which included consignments of clothes, in water and started fleeing the scene as soon as they saw the IRGC patrol. The IRGC boats took the discharged goods to judicial authorities, added the sources.

In 2011, Commander of Iran’s Border Guard Units General Hossein Zolfaqari said that smugglers are experiencing a harder time at Iranian borders due to the tight police control and newly-erected entanglements at the country’s borders

Zolfaqari noted that police discovery of smuggled cargos has increased due to the same reason.

He pointed to the measures taken by the Iranian police along the country’s borderline, including the millions of dollars that it has spent on erecting entanglements and blocking the borderline, to close the border to smugglers and drug-traffickers.

“As a result of these measures, discovery of smuggled weapons along the borders has increased by 50% and discovery of alcoholic drinks has grown by 75%…,” the commander announced.

Strategies pursued by Tehran include digging canals, building barriers and installing barbed wire to seal the country’s borders.

Iran has 5,440 kilometers of land borders. The country shares its Northern borders with Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan which extend for more than 2,000 kilometers, including about 650 kilometers of water along the Southern shore of the Caspian Sea. Iran’s Western borders are with Turkey and Iraq, and to the East with Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman littoral states form the country’s 1,770 kilometers of Southern border.