Colonel Hamid Gorizan said that the number of drugs traffickers arrested or killed in shoot-out with the police has been 28 percent higher compared to the same period in the year before.

"Afghanistan narcotics production will top 5,000 tons this year heralding many unforeseen security ramifications for the region," the police official added.

If the total narcotics production revenues is in the range of dlrs 40-60 billion, "only dlrs 170 million will be earned by the farmers," the police official added.

Also, in related news, over 2,983 addicts, dealers and smugglers have been arrested in Khorassan province in the month of Day (December 21-January 19), the local police reported Wednesday.

He added that over 366 kg of narcotics have been seized in the same period in the moping-up operations carried out by the local police.

"Of the people arrested 641 were addicts with the remaining consisting of distributors and dealers," it said.

Anti-drug police have nabbed over 200 tons of illicit drugs throughout the country during the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 20, 2004).

Drug confiscation has been unprecedented since after the victory of the Islamic Revolution (1979).

Moreover, more security measures are being enforced by anti-drug police in eastern parts of the country compared to the those in previous years.

The number of organized crimes committed in Iran is less than those in other states, but that this latest development should be taken as a warning to all.

Some 1.2 million people are addicted to narcotics in Iran while about 800,000 people use drugs occasionally.

Iran lies on the crossroads of major drug trafficking routes originating mainly from Afghanistan.

More than 3,600 members of Iran's armed forces have been killed in cross-border clashes with drug traffickers during 20 years of instability in neighboring Afghanistan.

According to official estimates, Iran's anti-drug campaign costs the country about dlrs 800 million annually.

The country is credited with intercepting 80 percent of the opium and 90 percent of the morphine worldwide.

Iran seizes about 80 percent of drugs worldwide annually. Only last year 200 tons of various types of drugs were seized throughout the country.