POLICE ARREST 3,000 DRUG ADDICTS, DEALERS IN TEHRAN

TEHRAN. In a move to observe June 26 marking the International drug control
day, Iranian police have rounded up over 3,000 drug addicts and traffickers
in the capital, Tehran police chief said Monday.

Brigadier General Mohsen Ansari told reporters that the round-up of dealers
and addicts was aimed at cleaning up the drug-infested places and arrest of
repeat offenders.

"More than fifty kilos of narcotics and some 4,000 small plastic bags of
heroin, known here as "20-cm joints" were confiscated in the operations,"
he said.

Ansari said the operation was launched simultaneously at 150 suspected
spots, including city parks and cozy corners where such people often
gather, such as certain coffee and tea houses in some shabby parts of the city.

He thanked the Revolutionary Court of Tehran for its close cooperation
within the framework of anti-drug fights launched by police.

He also announced the a complementary cultural and propagation maneuver,
dubbed the Valadiyat IV, is to be launched in Tehran on June 27 and 28 in
which the police would cooperate with the volunteer Basij forces.

The main objective of the above-mentioned operation will be to acquire
information that can lead to arresting more such criminals and to answer
the people's related questions.

The Val Adiyat VI Operation will be launched in 100 areas in Tehran.

Brigadier General Ansari did not elaborate on police plans for June 26, the
International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

Getting access to heroin is believed to have become really easy in Iran in
recent months and the price of a "20-cm pack" of it is rock bottom low (as
low as a bottle of milk), although the price of opium has gone
sky-rocketing high and its availability, too, is said to be really low.

Iran is a major route for smuggling drugs from Afghanistan and Pakistan to
markets in the Persian Gulf, Europe and beyond. Opium, heroin, hashish and
morphine are hauled through the country and single busts involving a ton or
more of drugs are not uncommon.

Iranian authorities stepped up surveillance along the country's borders by
ordering the setting up of outposts and an electronically monitored barbed
wire fence along the 945-kilometer border with Afghanistan. A budget of 200
billion rials (dlrs 25 million) was allocated for the project.

Official reports say 3,100 Iranian police officers have been killed in
drug-related battles throughout Iran over the past twenty years.