“3,300km of different physical and electronic barriers have been created and 50,000 gangs and groups in which distributed drugs were annihilated. Some 100,000 vehicles (carrying drugs) have been seized and 12,000 tons of narcotics discovered and seized in the past 40 years (after the Islamic Revolution in Iran),” General Momeni said on Monday.

He added that 3,800 security and police forces have been martyred in the past 40 years while fighting against drug traffickers.

Iran is in the forefront of the fight against drug trafficking and thousands of Iranian police forces have been so far martyred to protect the world from the danger of drugs.

The Iranian anti-narcotics police have always staged periodic operations against drug traffickers and dealers, but reports – which among others indicate an improved and systematic dissemination of information – reveal that the world’s most forefront and dedicated anti-narcotic force (as UN drug-campaign assessments put it) has embarked on a long-term countrywide plan to crack down on the drug trade since more than a decade ago.

In relevant remarks in May, Iranian Police Chief Brigadier General Hossein Ashtari had described Iran as a pioneering state in campaign against drug trafficking, and said, “We have declared our information and needs to the international organizations and I should say that we have not pinned hope on their aid.”

“We do not have hope that the international organizations can seriously confront” the cultivation and production of narcotics in Afghanistan, General Ashtari said.

The Iranian police officials maintain that drug production in Afghanistan has undergone a 50-fold increase since the US-led invasion of the country in 2001.

Afghan and western officials blame Washington and NATO for the change, saying that allies have “overlooked” the drug problem since invading the country 18 years ago.

Brigadier General Qanbari said on Monday that through extensive operations of counter Fuel Smuggling carried out by police forces 7,796,792 liters of smuggled fuel have been seized in the province during the first 7 months of the current Iranian year (March 21- October 22), and it shows an increase compared to the corresponding period in last year.

3.9 million liters of diesel, 1.1 million liters of oil, 835,000 liters of gasoline, and 1.9 million liters of other types of fuel have been seized during the operations in addition to the dismantling of 104 fuel smuggling bands, he added.

149 fuel depots and 241 tank-trucks have been confiscated, he said.

Although Iranian rial has experienced a severe depreciation against international currencies in recent months, fuel prices have remained unchanged and this has multiplied the lucrativeness of fuel smuggling in Iran.

As reported in early June, Iran has launched a border market to sell diesel fuel to buyers in Pakistan and Afghanistan to counter smuggling of fuel ate border areas.

Early in this month, Commander of the Border Forces of Khuzestan province Lotfali Pakbaz said that Abadan coast guards in Southwestern Iran identified and seized an oil tanker carrying fuel to neighboring countries.

Last month, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) captured a vessel in the Persian Gulf for smuggling 250,000 liters of diesel fuel.

“The vessel was seized in the IRGC Navy’s 5th region in the Persian Gulf area as it was carrying a large amount of diesel fuel illegally,” the IRGC said.

The crew of the smuggling fuel ship, which was stopped and brought under detention 32 kilometers off Iran’s Greater Tunb Island in the Persian Gulf, have been handed over to the judicial authorities to undergo legal proceedings.

The report added that the smugglers said during the interrogation that they had loaded the cargo at the Sang Salameh region and they were carrying it to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).