17 TONS OF DRUGS SEIZED IN FARS PROVINCE IN PREVIOUS YEAR

SHIRAZ. Police seized over 17 tons of drugs from drug traffickers in
this southern province in the last Iranian calendar year which ended
March 20, the provincial police chief said Thursday.

"Over the same period, some 100 assault rifles and hundreds of crime
vehicles were nabbed from smugglers," Brigadier-General Hossein
Zolfaqari told IRNA during a ceremony here which saw police forces
burn over 2.7 tons of drugs to mark Anti-Drugs Week.

The drugs were seized from drug traffickers during the entire period
of Iranian calendar year 1377 (March 1998-1999) and throughout Fars
province.

"Iran has launched a serious war against drug dealers," Zolfaqari said.

Iran is a major route in the international drug trade which
originates from sources in Afghanistan and Pakistan to markets in the
Persian Gulf, Europe and beyond. Opium, heroin, hashish and morphine
are taken across country borders using high-tech means to avoid
detection. Single busts involving a ton or more of drugs are no
longer uncommon.

Last year, Iran erected outposts and an electronically monitored
fence along its 945-kilometer (587-mile) border with Afghanistan in
an attempt to cut down on the drug trade and its accompanying crimes.