Iranian police seize nearly 2 tons of drugs

TEHRAN, Iran (Reuters) -- Iranian police have seized nearly two tons of drugs in operations against traffickers near the rugged border with Pakistan, the official IRNA news agency said on Saturday.

Some 1,650 kg (3,696 lbs) of narcotics were seized in sting on smugglers carrying the contraband on 11 camels in Baluchistan province, an area of mostly desert straddling the border. It did not say what the drugs were.

In a separate incident in the region, police seized 328 kg of opium and 26 kg of morphine carried on the back of a truck. One "bandit" was killed and five arrested in the operation.

Iran lies on the main transit route for heroin from Afghanistan and Pakistan to the lucrative markets of Europe and the oil-rich Arab states. It also has a large domestic drug problem with some two million addicts and users among a population of 63 million.

Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, in a speech to the United Nations general assembly on Friday, complained that drug-consuming countries were not doing enough to help Iran combat narcotics smuggling through its long and porous borders.

More than 2,900 Iranian drug enforcement officials have been killed in battles with traffickers, he said.

Some 70 percent of all drugs seized by authorities worldwide are seized in Iran, and investment in fighting drug trafficking through the Islamic Republic would be one of the most cost-effective means of combating the crime, he said.

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