Iran considers Turkey as reliable partner in fighting drug smuggling

Turkey is one of the Islamic Republic’s active partners in the region in fighting drug smuggling and organized crime, General Ali Moayedi, the head of the anti-drug division of Iran's police said.

He made the remarks in a meeting with Orhan Ozdemir, the Turkish Police Department's Anti-smuggling and Organized Crime Bureau head on April 22 in Tehran.

Moayedi further said that fighting drug smuggling and organized crime in the region needs cooperation of all the countries.

He said that Tehran and Ankara have already signed various MoUs (Memorandum of Understanding) on the issue and the today meetings were focused on completion of the mentioned MoUs, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported April 22.

The parties also discussed transferring of experiences and information as well as educational cooperation of the two countries’ police forces.

Ozdemir, for his part said that the two countries are destinations of the drug transits as well, adding the countries should take measures to decrease the drug consumption in their country to the lowest level.

“Our countries also should be excluded from being a drug transit route to other countries,” Ozdemir said.

Last February Rouzbeh Kardouni, the head of Social Vulnerabilities Office at the Iranian Ministry of Cooperatives Labor and Social welfare said that annually about 450 metric tons of opium is consumed in Iran, which is equal to 42 percent of total opium consumption in the world.

The official further said that over 1.3 million people suffer drug addiction in Iran.

According to official estimates, the fight against drugs annually cost Iran about $1 billion.

It was reported that some 490 metric tons of drugs were seized in the country during the last Iranian fiscal year (ended on March 20).

/By Trend/