VIENNA, March 11: Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan carried out their first joint counter-narcotics operation this week, pooling intelligence to arrest suspects and seize drugs in an unprecedented show of cooperation, UN officials disclosed on Wednesday.

Officials at the Vienna-based UN Office on Drugs and Crime said the operation was conducted on Sunday at undisclosed locations along Iran’s borders with the two other countries.

“We are waiting anxiously for the results in terms of arrests and seizures,” said Antonio Maria Costa, the UN’s chief anti-drugs official, hailing the joint operation for sending “a very important political message” to drug traffickers across the region.

Costa’s office said the operation was part of a UN initiative aimed at getting the three countries to carry out joint patrols and share intelligence on the criminal gangs that process opium poppy into heroin and smuggle the drug.—AP
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