Germany Seizes 700kg Of Heroin Smuggled From Iran
Germany has arrested four members of a gang smuggling narcotics from Iran in an operation that is reported as the country’s largest-ever seizure of heroin.
Germany has arrested four members of a gang smuggling narcotics from Iran in an operation that is reported as the country’s largest-ever seizure of heroin.
Prosecutors said on Friday that police confiscated 700 kilograms (1,543 pounds) of heroin in the port city of Hamburg at the end of August, but the arrests were made overnight on Thursday, September 8, when police searched 10 premises in the eastern cities of Dresden and Chemnitz, as well as in Hamburg and in the Netherlands.
The detainees were an unnamed 35-year-old Iranian in the Netherlands, a 40-year-old Turkish-Serbian suspected ringleader, a 54-year-old German suspected of using his firm's logistics fleet to transport drugs, and a 53-year-old Turkish go-between.
One was detained in Germany, one in Spain, and two others in the Netherlands. Prosecutors are seeking the extraditions of the three who were arrested abroad.
Last year in September, Indian officials said they had seized nearly three tons of heroin originating from Afghanistan and shipped from Bandar Abbas Port in Iran to Gujarat Mundra port worth an estimated 200 billion rupees ($2.72 billion). More than 2,988 kg of heroin was recovered in one of India's biggest such hauls to date.
In May, Jordan said Iran-backed forces in the Syrian army and militias loyal to Tehran are trying to smuggle hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of drugs across the Jordanian border to Persian Gulf markets.
“The stances of the Iranian government in diplomatic matters are usually against accepted international norms and this is not surprising to those who regularly follow developments related to Iran,” Germany-based political analystPezhman Golchin told Iran International.
World leaders, including those of Iran’s neighbors such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia, and even the Russian President Vladimir Putin, have sent condolences to the British government and King Charles who has succeeded his mother. The Islamic Republic of Iran andthe Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan have remained silent.
The British monarch visited Iran in 1961, at the end of an extensive Tour of India and Pakistan but not after the Islamic revolution of 1979. Prince Charles who was patron of the British Red Cross, however, made an unofficial visit to the Iranian city of Bam in February 2004 following a devastating earthquake that left around 30,000 people dead. The Prince met with Iran’s president Mohammad Khatami who was considered a more moderate leader.
Golchin said the long-standing disputes between the Islamic Republic and Britain which date back to the Islamic Revolution of 1979, and the fact that the British embassy was stormed and taken over by hardliners in 2011 could be among the reasons for the silence of Iranian officials.
Iran’s exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi, however, condoled the British people and royal family on behalf of himself and his family in a message soon after the announcement of the Queen’s death. Prince Reza Pahlavi said in his message that Queen Elizabeth will be remembered as a symbol of wisdom, strength, and grace.
Some hardliners who are generally against the institution of monarchy, beside hostility towards Britain, have even expressed delight over the Queen's death in their social media posts while some others have opined that withholding condolences is a sign of Iran's “independence”.
In his speeches, Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei usually refers to Britain as the “Evil Britain” and his disdain is on par with his hostility towards the United States, the “Great Satan”.
In July 2009 during protests following a disputed election which put his favorite candidate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad back in office, Khamenei alleged that Britain had fomented unrest in the country. Soon after his speech Iranian security forces arrested nine local staff of the British embassy in Tehran for alleged incitement of protesters to unrest and espionage.
On November 29, 2011, a group of hardline students many among whom were affiliated with the Basij militia attacked the UK embassy compound a day after Tehran downgraded its diplomatic relations with London over a new sanction imposed on Iran. Attackers took over the embassy for a few hours and forced staff to leave the compound. The UK closed its embassy on the following day and ordered Iranian diplomats to leave London. The two countries only restored full diplomatic relations in August 2015.
Tensions rose again in July 2019 when fast boats of the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) had an encounter with the British Royal Navy After trying to impede their movement in the Strait of Hormuz.
Relations between Iran and Britain date back to the 13th century but it was in the 19th century that the British Empire became deeply involved in Iranian politics and a negative attitude towards British, and its rival Tzarist Russia began to take deep roots among Iranians. This negative attitude grew worse following the 1953 coup that overthrew the nationalist prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh and restored the Shah.
Pir-Hossein Kolivand, the head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS), said that more than 8,400 Iranian pilgrims have been treated or got an IV at the society’s makeshift clinics for cases such as extreme dehydration or low blood sugar in and around the Iraqi cities of Karbala, Najaf, and Kadhimiya.
Social media is full of posts and videos of people complaining about the crowded border crossings with insufficient facilities.
Mojtaba Khaledi, the spokesman for the Iranian Medical Emergency Organization, said on Thursday that over 10,300 pilgrims have been referred to healthcare stations with signs of heatstroke.
Three more Iranians died earlier in the week in Iraq's Wasit Governorate, which borders the Islamic Republic.
Earlier in the day, Iraq and Iran closed land borders over safety concerns as millions of Iranian pilgrims supported by Tehran were on the move to reach Karbala for Arbaeen. The pilgrimage is on the occasion of Arbaeen, the 40th day after the death of the third Shiite Imam, Hussain Ibn Ali, who was killed in a power rivalry by the reigning caliph in a clash in Karbala in 680 AD.
Majid Mir-Ahmadi, the head of the Arbaeen pilgrimage headquarters, said that “in the wake of worrying incidents that happened at the Shalamcheh and Mehran borders and serious threats to the health and security of the pilgrims, high-ranking officials decided to close borders until further notice,” mentioning “a lack of proper infrastructure in Iraq for accepting the pilgrims” and “hot weather" as reasons behind the decision.
