Interior Minister: 90% of the world's smuggled opium was discovered in Iran last year
Ahmad Vahidi, the Minister of Interior of Ebrahim Raisi's government, said on Tuesday, November 8, in a meeting with ambassadors of foreign countries that in the last year alone, 90 percent of the world's smuggled opium was discovered in Iran.
Mr. Vahidi added, without providing relevant documentation, that among other drugs, 72 percent of morphine and 20 percent of heroin smuggled in the world were discovered in Iran last year.
In the past, Islamic Republic officials had repeated similar claims without providing evidence, including the Secretary-General of the Narcotics Headquarters, who said in early July of this year that 90 percent of the world's opium discoveries were made by Iran.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has always claimed to have discovered large quantities of drugs being shipped to European countries. In July of this year, Iranian Police Chief Hossein Ashtari announced that more than 1,010 tons of various drugs had been discovered in 2019 alone, saying that European countries should be "grateful" to Iran.
Iranian government officials, meanwhile, have repeatedly used this issue as a means of threatening European countries. For example, in 2018, after sanctions against Iran were tightened, former President Hassan Rouhani said that sanctions could weaken Iran's ability to combat drug trafficking, and in that case, European countries would not be able to "get out from under the rubble of drugs."
On October 13 of this year, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev made a serious accusation against the Islamic Republic of Iran in this regard, claiming: "Armenia, with the collusion of Iran, has been using the occupied territories of Karabakh to smuggle drugs to Europe for about thirty years."
According to Azerbaijani officials, after Azerbaijan liberated these areas, Iran intensified drug smuggling from other border areas of Azerbaijan, and during this period, the amount of heroin seized from Iran bound for Europe doubled.
Source: Radio Farda
