IRAN SEIZES 1 MILLION ALCOHOL BOTTLES IN FRONTIER PROVINCE

Middle East Times, Egypt
AFP
September 16, 2007

TEHRAN — Iran has seized 1 million bottles of alcohol and arrested
hundreds of smugglers in a border province, over the past five months,
as part of a campaign against immorality, the Fars news agency
said Sunday.

The seizures and arrests came in West Azarbaijan province, which
borders Iraqi Kurdistan, one of the main sources of alcohol being
illegally smuggled into the Islamic republic.

"As part of the campaign, 53 groups of alcohol traffickers have
been dismantled, 943,000 bottles of alcohol seized, and 435 people
arrested," the regional police chief Kheybar Tiba was quoted as saying.

He added that this represented a rise of 25 percent compared with
the same period, a year earlier.

The drive against alcohol smuggling is part of a nationwide campaign
dubbed the drive to "increase security in society," which, since April,
has clamped down on un-Islamic dressing, thugs, and other behavior
deemed antisocial.

Only recognized Christian minorities in Iran, such as the Armenians,
are allowed to produce and consume alcohol, discreetly and behind
closed doors, so as not to offend Islamic sensibilities.

Production, sale, or consumption of alcohol are, theoretically,
punishable by jail, although this has not stopped significant smuggling
from neighboring countries, including Azerbaijan and Turkey, as well
as Iraq, and the consumption of sometimes-lethal homemade liquor.

Police make regular seizures of illicit alcohol, and officials have
said police seized 4 million bottles, nationwide, in the 12 months
to April.