Speaking to reporters after meeting an Afghan deputy interior minister in Tehran on Sunday, Iran’s anti-narcotics police chief, General Ali Moayedi, said the two countries’ police forces seek to regulate joint operations and enhance intelligence cooperation in the battle against the narcotics originating from Afghanistan.
“The meeting was held to strengthen cooperation and relations between the police in Iran and Afghanistan, which has always been Iran’s friend and partner in the region,” the general said.
He said mutual efforts are underway to change the narcotics trafficking routes and block the smugglers’ way.
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.