2 policemen killed in Iran war on narcotics

According to the Sistan-Baluchestan border police, the conflict occurred in the Kohsefid district of the town of Saravan, near the Pakistan border.

During the fighting two border policemen, Ali-Qorban Ebrahimi and Nasser Sheibani, were killed.

The report added that the police confiscated about 677 kg of narcotics after the incident.

Iran lies on a transit corridor between opium-producing Afghanistan and drug dealers in Europe. To counter drug trafficking, the Iranian government has deployed thousands of security personnel along its eastern borders and has erected over 1,000 kilometers of embankments, canals, trenches, and cement walls.

More than 3,700 Iranian security forces have been killed in the country's war on drug trafficking.

Drug production in Afghanistan has increased dramatically since the US-led invasion of the country more than eight years ago.

According to a report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region has become one of the world's largest free-trade zones for anything illicit, from drugs and weapons to illegal immigration.

In May 2009, UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa praised Iran for its efforts in stemming the flow of drugs from Afghanistan to the West, saying, "The anti-narcotics police in Iran are among the best in the world."


/Press.TV/