Official Raps Europeans Over Indifferences to Drugs

Date: 13 November 2019 - 21:28

News ID: ۷۲۶۸۰

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- The head of the Iranian Anti Narcotics Police says European countries should know that if Tehran eases its chokehold on the passage of drugs, they will end up on the streets of Europe.
Brigadier General Muhammad Masoud Zahedian said all world countries should play their part in the fight against narcotics and help Iran which lies on the crossroads of drug trafficking originating from Afghanistan and pays a heavy price in fighting it.
Speaking on the sidelines of an exhibition of illicit drugs seized by Iranian security forces in Tehran, Zahedian said Iran’s capacities are limited in the face of rising drug production in Afghanistan.
The manufacturing of narcotic drugs in Afghanistan has jumped to 10,000 tonnes a year from 185 tonnes in 2001, he said.
"Iran’s facilities do not match this volume, and the country may not be able to check all the inflows,” Zahedian said, adding illegally trafficked substances would definitely find their way gram by gram to the pockets of the European youths.
"We urge the European countries to support Iran’s efforts to combat narcotics,” the official said.
Iran is at the forefront of the fight against drug trafficking and thousands of Iranian forces have lost their lives a relentless battle to stem the scourge.
Afghans blame the U.S. and other invaders of their country, saying they have usually turned a blind eye to the drug problem over the past 18 years.
Secretary-General of the Drug Control Headquarters Brigadier General Eskandar Momeni said Tuesday Iran’s share of global opium seizures has risen to 90 percent from 76 percent.
According to the UN, Iran also accounts for 67 percent of the world’s morphine catches, Momeni said during a visit to the border city of Mirjaveh in Sistan and Baluchestan province.
The province in southeast Iran is at the forefront of the fight against narcotics in Iran as well as the world, Momeni said.
"Iran has spent billions of dollars to create barriers, fences, border checkpoints, optical systems, barbed wires and canals along 2,000 kilometers of borders, and so far, more than 3,800 security forces have been killed in the fight against illegal drugs,” he said.
Momeni said the bulk of the costs paid by Iran is made for confiscating narcotic drugs bound for Europe, but the Islamic Republic is a constant target of attacks by European states under the guise of human rights.
Laboratories producing meth and industrial drugs have mushroomed in record numbers in Afghanistan this year, posing a serious threat to countries around the world, Momeni warned.
"It is true that Iran is fighting against illicit drugs, but the world must also fulfill its responsibilities in this regard,” he said.
In the first seven months since March, about 600 tonnes of narcotics were discovered in Iran, up 15 percent year-on-year, Momeni said.