ICBPS- Iranian truck carrying 244 kilograms (approximately 538 pounds) of heroin was seized at the Azerbaijani customs.
According to the Azerbaijani customs’ website on May 20, 2021, the 230 kilograms of heroin was detected in wrapped pieces, hidden inside the potato shipment.
It is a common way to smuggle drugs, weapons, and other illegal goods by Iranian smugglers, including IRGC forces, under the guise of agricultural shipments, and other vital survival needs.
The shipment was seized by officials at Azerbaijan’s Astara customs after the trained dogs sniffed and detected the heroin.
The truck was stopped in Azerbaijan en route to Ukraine.

In a similar story, another Iranian truck carrying 230 kilograms (approximately 507 pounds) of heroin also was seized at the Azerbaijani customs, according to Azerbaijani customs’ reports on April 13, 2021. The driver, who holds Azerbaijan nationality, took into custody, say the reports. The shipment was hidden inside the potato shipment.

On September 2, 2020, Azerbaijani customs announced that it seized an Iranian truck carrying 305 kilograms (approximately 672 pounds) of heroin, which was detected in wrapped 598 pieces — worth 22 million euros —, hidden inside the agricultural plowing equipment.

In 2019, during an anti-drug operation, the Turkish Gendarmerie General Command (Jandarma Genel Komutanlığı) seized 51 kilograms (approximately 112 pounds) of heroin in Van, eastern the country. The shipment was carried on the back of a horse, said reports.

About 200 Iranian citizens are currently being kept at Azerbaijani prisons, most of whom have been arrested on drug-related charges.
Last week, Iran’s ambassador to Azerbaijan Abbas Mousavi met 30 Iranian citizens, including 12 women, who are held at Baku prisons.
The Azerbaijani president Ilham Heydar Oglu Aliyev pardoned seven Iranians who were jailed in the country on the occasion of the Persian New Year “Nowruz”.

On March 18, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya reported that the Islamic Republic still continues its destructive activities in the region, smuggles weapons to Iraq and Syria under the guise of vegetable shipments.
While Assad-controlled areas in Syria are experiencing catastrophic living conditions and extreme poverty, trade is ongoing between the IRGC side (in Syria) and Tehran-affiliated militias in Iraq. The Islamic Republic, however, continues to strengthen its presence in Syria.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), trucks carrying vegetables, fruits, and other commercial goods go through
legal and illegal crossing borders between Syria and Iraq, especially west of the Euphrates.
Militants affiliated with the Iranian regime are often active in this business route to transport arms shipments to the militias-controlled areas under the guise of vegetable shipments.