Iranian border guards have detained a Pakistani fishing vessel carrying 2.44 tonnes of opium, Deputy Head of Iranian Border Patrol Habibollah Mardanpour said. According to a report by ISNA, Mardanpour noted that the drugs were professionally hidden inside the vessel, yet they were confiscated, and 8 people on the vessel were arrested as a result. According to Mardanpour, seven people turned out to be Pakistanis, while one other was Iranian. The vessel was captured in Hormozgan province of Iran, and as it was revealed later, it belonged to a local Pakistani drug lord named “Mohammad”. The vessel took off in Pakistani Gwadar port, and was supposed to ship the drugs off to the speed boats on Iranian territory, and the boats would later take opium to Iranian Minab and Bender-Abbas cities, as well as other countries of Persian Gulf. In order to cover up the origins of the vessel, it had fake documents from Iranian Chabahar city. Chabahar is a city in and capital of Chah Bahar County, Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran. It is a free port (free trade zone) on the coast of the Gulf of Oman. Chabahar is officially designated as a Free Trade and Industrial Zone by Iran’s government. Due to its free trade zone status, the city has increased in significance in international trade.
