Cudras
“Afghanistan has the highest production of drugs in the world. In recent years, the production of the industrial drug has increased from 200 tons to more than 9,500 tons,” Iranian Deputy Police Chief and Secretary General of Iran’s Drug Control Headquarters Brigadier General Eskandar Momeni told a press conference on Saturday.
He slammed Washington over the surge in production of illicit drugs in Afghanistan during its two decade occupation of the country.
“Unfortunately, with the support of the US, the production of industrial drugs has also increased in Afghanistan,” the official stated.
“Iran is the most leading country in fight against drug trafficking,” Brig. Gen. Momeni noted, adding that 90% of the opium, 48% of the morphine and 26% of the heroin in the whole world have been discovered by Iran.
“Last year, drug trafficking gangs saw a loss of 19 thousand billion tomans, which this loss has increased by 48% compared to last year,” he asserted.
For decades, Iran has been fighting a relentless battle against international drug networks, but the war has cost it the loss of many lives and finances. Iranian security forces confiscate tons of narcotics every year in ambush operations against drugs traffickers.
The war on drug trade originating from Afghanistan — the major supplier of the vast majority of the world’s opium and heroin even during the 20-year occupation of the county by US-led forces — has claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 Iranian police officers over the past four decades.
In late June, the head of the Iranian anti-narcotics police said European countries owe Tehran a lot for blocking the transit of drugs destined for Europe, adding that the country confiscated over 1,200 tons of illicit narcotics last year.
Majid Karimi, however, slammed Europe for depriving the Islamic Republic of the latest technology to fight drug trafficking in line with sanctions spearheaded by the US, while they directly benefit from Iran’s anti-drugs measures.
“If the Islamic Republic of Iran stops the fight (against drugs) for only a month, the European countries will have to gather every gram of the huge hauls of drugs from their streets,” he warned.
Iran’s Interior Minister has also criticized the Western governments for their “poor performance” in the fight against narcotrafficking.
Ahmad Vahidi stated in late June the main culprits behind the promotion of drug use are some Western intelligence agencies and Western politicians.
He noted that the production of industrial drugs is a lucrative business for the Western countries.
He demanded that Western banks control the financial operations of narcotrrafickers, saying it’s questionable that financial institutions in the West turn a blind eye to the issue.
Vahidi underlined Iran is now going it alone in the fight against narcotics but instead of being thanked, it’s getting accused by its adversaries under various pretexts.
He underscored that 3,850 Iranian security forces have been killed on the line of duty in the war on drugs and 12,000 others have been injured.
