TEHRAN – Iranian deputy police chief Qasem Rezaei and his Armenian counterpart Aram Hovhannisyan on Tuesday discussed strengthening police interactions to guarantee the security of the two countries.

During a meeting held in Tehran, Rezaei expressed hope to enhance cooperation with Armenian police officials in various areas, announcing readiness to hold joint specialized meetings with the aim of expanding relations, IRNA reported.

Noting that the Iranian police has valuable and unique experiences in various police fields, he added that "I hope that holding such bilateral meetings, especially in border cities, will be a practical beginning to move in the direction of cooperation development."

Today, Iran's police services are global, and due to the sacrifices of police forces in the fight against drug trafficking, the transit of drugs to other parts of the world, especially European countries, is prevented and the discovery of more than a thousand tons of narcotics per year is evidence to this claim, he further highlighted.

Hovhannisyan also for his part said that I bow my head in respect to all the courage and sacrifice of the Iranian police officers in the fight against drug traffickers, as evidenced by the number of martyrs who have lost their lives in this way.

The main purpose of this meeting is to develop cooperation and improve the situation in various fields, especially in dealing with and combating drug traffickers, he stated, expressing preparedness to take action in this regard.

Today, we witnessed the high capabilities of the Iranian police in various fields of science, skills, tactics, specialized equipment, and I hope that by improving police interactions between the two countries, we can benefit from the highly specialized knowledge of Iran in strengthening the Armenian police, he concluded.

Iran holds world record for narcotics confiscation 

Iran holds the record for narcotics confiscation in the world, Eskandar Momeni, the director of headquarters for the fight against narcotics, said in December 2021.

However, great achievements in the field of countermeasures have been gained, and the United Nations has officially announced that 90 percent of opium, 70 percent of morphine, and 20 percent of world heroin have been discovered by Iran.

Last year, about 1,200 tons of drugs were discovered, which was the highest rate of discovery in the world,” he explained.

According to figures released by the United Nations in 2000, Afghanistan produced about 200 tons of narcotics, but in 2018, it has grown to 9,500 tons.

In other words, the production of narcotics has increased fifty times, which has doubled the need for prevention efforts, he highlighted.

Despite the conditions caused by the coronavirus outbreak and the imposition of harsh sanctions against the country, fortunately, with the efforts of anti-narcotics police in 2020, drug detection increased by 41 percent.

After the Islamic Revolution (in 1979), 3,800 were martyred, 12,000 were wounded and disabled in the fight against drug trafficking.

The UNODC has praised Iran’s efforts to fight against narcotics trafficking on the occasion of International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

The organization also officially announced that the world’s first place in the discovery of opium, heroin, and morphine belongs to Iran.

According to UNODC, Iran remains one of the major transit routes for drug trafficking from Afghanistan to European countries and has had a leading role at the global level in drug-control campaigns.

UNODC World Drug Report 2020 estimates that in 2018, 91 percent of world opium, 48 percent of the world morphine, and 26 percent of the world heroin were seized by Iran.

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