PHOTOS: KRG confiscates five kilograms of opium on Iran border

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Kurdish security confiscated five kilograms of opium at one of the Kurdistan Region border crossings with Iran within a month, said border security on Sunday.

The security of Haji Omaran International border crossing, located at the Kurdistan Region-Iran border, told Kurdistan24 that three kilograms of opium have been confiscated.

“On Saturday, our security personnel confiscated three kilograms of opium after investigating some Iranian tourists,” said the border security office.

The officers also mentioned that the arrested person is from Urmia city in Iranian Kurdistan. “He wanted to take the opium to Erbil, but security arrested him and confiscated the opium,” the security office added.

According to the security office, the opium was covered inside blue carbon along with some vehicle parts so that the security machines would not be able to discover it.

The office also revealed that they have seized two more kilograms of opium within the last two weeks that were brought from other Iranian cities, aiming to pass the border crossing and be transferred to Erbil.

Recently, the Director of Research and Education at the headquarters of the Drug Enforcement Iran, Hamid Sarami, said in a conference in Ahwaz that Iran has approximately 1.3 million registered drug addicts. The number does not include occasional users and unregistered addicts.

Of these addicts, 58 percent are reportedly younger than 34, 9 percent are women, and 22 percent have higher education. As a result, some 10 million Iranians out of the 80 million population have to struggle with the consequences of drug addiction. 

Reporting by Tayfur Mohamad and Mewan Dolamari
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany