“Police in Bushehr Province are always prepared to combat the merchants of death (drug traffickers)," Bushehr Police Chief Vahid Zarrin-Kolah stated during an interview with the Tasnim News Agency.
Thanks to the round-the-clock efforts by the police forces, 160 drug rings have been disbanded in the southern province of Bushehr, he added.
In recent decades, Iran has been hit by drug trafficking, mainly because of its 936- kilometer shared border with Afghanistan, which produces more than 90% of the world’s opium.
According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the Islamic Republic is netting eight times more opium and three times more heroin than all other countries in the world combined.
The war on drug trade originating from Afghanistan has claimed the lives of nearly 3,700 Iranian police officers over the past 30 years.