Tehran Police Nabs 50 Drug Smugglers in 3 Weeks

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Commander of Tehran’s Anti-Narcotics Police Colonel Mohammad Bakhshandeh said the 50 arrested dealers were members of 8 rings that used to smuggle drugs into capital Tehran.

He noted that 1,223 kilograms of drugs have been confiscated from those smugglers.

Iran, which has a 900-kilometer common border with Afghanistan, has been used as the main conduit for smuggling Afghan drugs to narcotics kingpins in Europe.

Despite high economic and human costs, the Islamic Republic has been actively fighting drug-trafficking over the past decades.

The country has spent more than $700 million on sealing its borders and preventing the transit of narcotics destined for European, Arab and Central Asian countries.

The war on drug trade originating from Afghanistan has claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 Iranian police officers over the past four decades.