TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran has carried on a battle against narcotics in spite of being highly affected by cruel sanctions and COVID-19 pandemic, Eskandar Momeni, the director of headquarters for the fight against narcotics, said.
Iran has received the least possible assistance and cooperation in the global fight against narcotics while facing the most oppressive U.S. sanctions and unilateral coercive measures in supplying equipment and forces for this global fight, he lamented.
He went on to note that the issue of counternarcotic is no exception to the consequences of COVID-19 disease, and all current programs and activities in this area have been affected by the current situation.
Last year (March 2020 – March 2021), amid the pandemic, Iran has participated in more than 20 regional and international events online, in cooperation with the UNODC office in Tehran, he highlighted, IRNA reported on Tuesday.
The counter-narcotics agencies and police forces succeeded in detecting about 1,150 tons of various types of narcotics by strengthening the mechanisms for monitoring and exchanging information between the responsible organizations.
This volume of discoveries is a new and unprecedented record in the fight against drugs, which shows a growth of about 41 percent compared to 2019, he noted, adding, some 90 percent of the substances found were opium, 26 percent heroin, and 48 percent morphine.
This success has been achieved with the martyrdom of 10 law enforcement and counter-narcotics forces in the global front against drug transit, he further stated.
Iran’s anti-narcotics measures
Iran seized some 1,000 tons of narcotics in the Iranian calendar year 1398 (ended March 20, 2020), putting the country in first place in the world, Momeni said in July 2020.
After the Islamic Revolution (in 1979), 3,800 were martyred, 12,000 were wounded and disabled in the fight against drug trafficking, Momeni announced.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has praised Iran’s efforts to fight against narcotics trafficking on the occasion of International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
The organization also officially announced that the world’s first place in the discovery of opium, heroin, and morphine belongs to Iran.
According to UNODC, Iran remains one of the major transit routes for drug trafficking from Afghanistan to European countries and has had a leading role at the global level in the drug-control campaigns.
UNODC World Drug Report 2020 estimates that in 2018, 91 percent of world opium, 48 percent of the world morphine, and 26 percent of the world heroin were seized by Iran.
Iran’s drug control efforts led to the seizure of 266 tons of different types of drugs during the period of April-June 2020, a 20 percent increase compared to the same period in 2019.
