The Iran Primer

            On October 11, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime released a report showing that Iran is the only Western/Central Asian country to make more heroin seizures every year since 2004. Over the last decade, Iran built extensive infrastructure on its 600 mile eastern border with Afghanistan and deployed additional security forces to stop trafficking. But the report concludes that smugglers are now abusing licit trade routes for opiate trafficking in the wider region. The following are key findings with a link to a full report at the end.

             In recent years, drug traffickers have become increasingly reliant on maritime transportation to smuggle opiates from Iranian and Pakistani seaports to the global market. By abusing trade routes from Afghanistan, traffickers can smuggle opiates to the Iranian seaports at Bandar Abbas and Chabahar, as well as to the Pakistani seaports at Gwadar, Karachi and Port Qasim.