Azernews.Az

Iranian Minister of Justice Mostafa Pourmohammadi said that the country plans to separate drug smuggling prisoners from other ones, moving them to special camps, IRNA news agency reported.

He went on to say that, Iran has already inaugurated such camps during recent years.

Pourmohammadi underlined that this will provide opportunity for controlling and training them.

Earlier in August, Iranian media quoted head of the Iran's Prisons Organization Gholamhossein Esmaeili as saying Iran is constructing a forced labour camp in the capital Tehran for drug-smuggling related prisoners.

"If funds do not fall short, construction will be finished in four months," he added.

Iran has already inaugurated two such forced labour camps in Isfahan and Khorasan Razavi Provinces.

The country lies on a major drug route between Afghanistan and Europe, as well as the Persian Gulf states. The Islamic Republic shares about 900 kilometers of a common border with Afghanistan, through which about 74 percent of opium is smuggled.

According to official estimates, the fight against drugs annually cost Iran about $1 billion. The statistics also say that there are about 2 million of drug users in Iran.

It was reported that 500 tons of drugs were seized during the last solar year and 215 tons during the first 5 months of the current solar year (started on March 21).