CNN: The United States imposed sanctions Wednesday on a senior member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Qods Force and designated him as a narcotics trafficker, the first such designation of an Iranian official. Gen. Gholamreza Baghbani, the current chief of the ICRG-QF office in Zahedan, Iran, has allowed Afghan narcotics traffickers to smuggle opiates through his zone of operations in exchange for money, the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement. Zahedan is located in the southeastern part of Iran near the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan >>>
07-Mar-2012Recently by Ghormeh Sabzi | Comments | Date |
---|---|---|
Majid Tavakoli: Prisoner of the day | 5 | Dec 02, 2012 |
Nasrin Sotoudeh: Prisoner of the day | 2 | Dec 01, 2012 |
Abdollah Momeni: Prisoner of the day | 2 | Nov 30, 2012 |
Person | About | Day |
---|---|---|
نسرین ستوده: زندانی روز | Dec 04 | |
Saeed Malekpour: Prisoner of the day | Lawyer says death sentence suspended | Dec 03 |
Majid Tavakoli: Prisoner of the day | Iterview with mother | Dec 02 |
احسان نراقی: جامعه شناس و نویسنده ۱۳۰۵-۱۳۹۱ | Dec 02 | |
Nasrin Sotoudeh: Prisoner of the day | 46 days on hunger strike | Dec 01 |
Nasrin Sotoudeh: Graffiti | In Barcelona | Nov 30 |
گوهر عشقی: مادر ستار بهشتی | Nov 30 | |
Abdollah Momeni: Prisoner of the day | Activist denied leave and family visits for 1.5 years | Nov 30 |
محمد کلالی: یکی از حمله کنندگان به سفارت ایران در برلین | Nov 29 | |
Habibollah Golparipour: Prisoner of the day | Kurdish Activist on Death Row | Nov 28 |
Excerpts from Wikipedia for self-hating Iranians
by MeyBokhor_Manbarbesuzan on Thu Mar 08, 2012 06:44 AM PST//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_production_in_Afghanistan
Opium Smuggling into Iran
While Herat is not the highest-volume area of opium trade, Herat, and the other Iranian border areas of Farah, and Nimroz, have some of the highest prices, presumably due to demand from the Iranian market. "Opium prices are especially high in Iran, where law enforcement is strict and where a large share of the opiate consumption market is still for opium rather than heroin. Not surprisingly, it appears that very significant profits can be made by crossing the Iranian border or by entering Central Asian countries like Tajikistan." According to UNODC estimates bulk of Afghanistan's opium production goes to Iran either for consumption or for on-ward export to other countries in the region and Europe. Iran currently has the largest prevalence of opiate consumption in its population globally. Iran also accounts for 84% of total opiate seizures by law enforcement agencies in the world, interdicting tens of thousands of tons of opiates annually. The Iranian government has gone through several phases in dealing with its drug problem.
First, during the 1980s, its approach was supply-sided: "Law-and-order policies with zero tolerance led to the arrest of tens of thousands of addicts and the execution of thousands of narcotics traffickers."
"There are an estimated 68,000 Iranians imprisoned for drug trafficking and another 32,000 for drug addiction (out of a total prison population of 170,000, based on 2001 statistics)"
Beehner said "Tehran also has spent millions of dollars and deployed thousands of troops to secure its porous 1,000-mile border with Afghanistan and Pakistan... a few hundred Iranian drug police die each year in battles with smugglers. Referring to the head of the UNODC office in Iran, Roberto Arbitrio, Beehner quoted Arbitrio in an interview with The Times. "You have drug groups like guerrilla forces, [who] ... shoot with rocket launchers, heavy machine guns, and Kalashnikovs."
A second-phase strategy came under then-President Mohammad Khatami, focused more on prevention and treatment. Drug traffic is considered a security problem, and much of it is associated with Baluchi tribesmen, who recognize traditional tribal rather than national borders. Current (2007) reports cite Iranian concern with ethnic guerillas on the borders, possibly supported by the CIA.
Iranian drug strategy changed again under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who took office in 2005. Iran's drug policy has been reconsidered and shifted back toward supply interdiction and boosting border security. It is unclear if this is connected to more wide-ranging concerns with border security, perhaps in relation to Baluchi guerillas in Iran.
Iran has alleged that certain drugs are manufactured in Afghanistan under guidance of western powers and solely sent to Iran for consumption such as certain compounds of heroin, Crack cocaine and CNS stimulants. Iran has also alleged that large quantities of Acetic anhydride and Hydrochloric acid are brought to Afghanistan from Europe to be used in manufacturing of drugs as Afghanistan does not have the chemical industry to produce the compounds locally.
Samii's 2003 paper described Iran's "primary approach to the narcotics threat [as] interdiction. Iran shares a 936 kilometer border with Afghanistan and a 909 kilometer border with Pakistan, and the terrain in the two eastern provinces—Sistan va Baluchistan and Khorasan—is very rough. The Iranian government has set up static defenses along this border. This includes concrete dams, berms, trenches, and minefields...
As per UN drug report of 2011, Iran accounts for highest rate of opium and heroin seizure rates in the world, intercepting 89% of all seized opium in the world. Within a span of thirty years, 3700 Iranian police officers have been killed and tens of thousands more injured in counter narcotics operations mostly on Afghan and Pakistan borders.
Very interesting
by MeyBokhor_Manbarbesuzan on Thu Mar 08, 2012 06:45 AM PSTThis general is accused of having "allowed Afghan narcotics traffickers to smuggle opiates through his zone of operations in exchange for money"
And this comes from the occupier entity that has allowed and protected the Af-Pak opium growers and smuglers.
Two possibilities here. Either the accusation is true since US knows what transits Afghan/Pak border with Iran but does itself nothing to stop the traffic.
Or it's a false accusation to smear the Iranian efforts at stopping the American approved production and smuggling of opiates from Afghanistan. An effort that has cost well above 3500 Iranian security officers' lives and an effort that has been recognized by the UN and various International organizations.
Ever wondered why those drones cannot kill Opium lords but successfully butcher wedding attendants?
چه قیافه ملیحی
ali_aaaThu Mar 08, 2012 06:07 AM PST
Will he hang?
by Simorgh5555 on Wed Mar 07, 2012 11:42 PM PSTAlong the hundreds of other drug related 'criminals' the IR executes every year? Baghbani is the only tip of the iceberg. It is well known that Sepah is the largest trafficker of narcotics into the West.
DEATH TO THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC. CONDEMN IT.FIGHT IT. DESTROY IT.
Gholamreza Baghbani: Drug Trafficker
by jmyt17 on Wed Mar 07, 2012 09:57 PM PSTAnother dirty face of IRI.
Look at his face.
I love the comments guys!
by shushtari on Wed Mar 07, 2012 09:28 PM PSTlaughed my a** off!
Gholam Reza Escobar
by Nader Vanaki on Wed Mar 07, 2012 05:02 PM PSTسَل دال اِسکوبال چه ژست نهضت سواد آموزی گرفته. فکر کنم داره برگه جریمه مینویسه. مشخصه که فقط پادو و گماشته بقیه سردارهاست. باز جای شکرش باقیه که خودش گرفتار به نظر نمیاد.
این گرامی
ArthimisWed Mar 07, 2012 01:57 PM PST
این گرامی قیافش خیلی شبیه گماشتهاست و میگن انشا نوشتنش هم بد نیست... خوب این هم رفت تو لیست ! :-))
Excellent. He look like a
by vildemose on Wed Mar 07, 2012 02:16 PM PSTExcellent. He looks like a drug-user himself...I Hope he is caught ASAP.
A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.--Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
A nice target
by Raoul1955 on Wed Mar 07, 2012 12:04 PM PSTFor the SEALs. :-)