Tehran - Iranian police have seized a stash of almost eight tons of cannabis in a restive eastern province, the state-run IRNA agency reported on Sunday.

 

 

 

Around 7 720kg of cannabis were confiscated from the smugglers' hideout in the mountains around the town of Sarbaz in the province of Sistan Baluchestan, on the border with Pakistan, a local police official told the agency.

"In an effective tactical operation four Kalashnikovs and one RPG-7 (rocket propelled grenade) were discovered and confiscated as the smugglers tried to escape," police official Eskandar Momeni said.

Iran is a major conduit for the smuggling of drugs from neighbouring countries, especially Afghanistan, towards western Europe and security forces are frequently involved in deadly clashes with heavily armed smugglers.

Drug smuggling is punishable by death in Iran, where the consumption and distribution of any kind of recreational drug or alcohol is strictly prohibited.

Iran is also working to combat drug use at home and unofficial figures reported by the press have estimated that 2 million out of Iran's 70 million population are drug addicts.

It also seizes millions of litres annually of alcohol illegally imported into the country, destroying four million litres of illicit booze during the last Iranian year, ending March 2007.

 

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