IRAN SMASHES INTERNATIONAL DRUGS RING

The Iranian police say they have destroyed an international drug
trafficking ring operating from Iran.

A senior police official, the Deputy Commander of the Law Enforcement
Forces, Brigadier General Mohsen Ansari, told the Iranian news agency that
the gang was also operating in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Cyprus,
Colombia and the United States.

He said thirty-eight members of the gang had been arrested, including three
Afghan nationals.

The official said information on a further twenty members would given to
the international police network, Interpol.

He said the gang brought the drugs in from Afghanistan and smuggled them
through Iran to Turkey and the west. He noted that Iran spends some
fifteen-million dollars a year on the campaign against drugs.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service