TEHRAN: Iranian police forces have managed to dismantle 129 rings involved in the smuggling of goods during the first three months of the current Iranian year, which began on March 21, a senior police commander said.
Speaking to reporters during a press conference in Tehran on Sunday, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Moqimi said the number of contraband rings dismantled in the three-month period has increased by 2 percent compared to the same period a year earlier.
The value of the smuggled goods seized by the police in this period hit 4,750 billion rials (about $1.62 billion), the commander said.
General Moqimi noted that the total value of all seizures of smuggled goods over the last year amounted to 17,000 billion rials (about $5.78 billion).
Back in January, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei had warned about the detrimental effects of imported and smuggled goods on Iran’s economy, stressing the need for measures to make the homegrown products a priority.
“Today, the pressure of imports is crippling the country, and there are very peculiar figures for the amount of flow of contraband into the country,” the Leader had said.
