TEHRAN, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian police announced on Saturday that it had smashed an international drug trafficking ring smuggling cocaine from Latin American countries into Iran, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency.
The Iranian anti-narcotics police officers arrested two members of the ring, who sought to smuggle more than six kilograms of cocaine worth 413,793 U.S. dollars into the country through Imam Khomeini International Airport south of Tehran, said Colonel Majid Karimi, head of Iran's Drug Control Headquarters.
The traffickers, who had hidden the cocaine in the shells on both sides of a suitcase containing clothes, were arrested at the airport in a surprise operation, said Karimi.
Both of the traffickers are foreign nationals and have been handed over to Iran's judicial authorities, he added.
The police learned about their criminal activities through exchanges of specialized information with the police of a country located on the band's transit route to Iran, he said. ■
