UNODC Arranges Official Visit to the Customs Dogs Centre

Tehran, 10 July 2019 – The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in cooperation with the Drug Control Headquarters and the Customs Administration of the Islamic Republic of Iran organized a visit to the Iranian Customs K9 Centre. The delegations from Embassies of Japan, Netherlands and UNODC were welcomed by senior Officials from the Drug Control Headquarters and the Customs Administration of the Islamic Republic of Iran, including Ms. Zobeidi, Director General of Customs Department for Fighting Organized Crime and Mr. Dastranj, Director General of Drug Supply Reduction Office of the Drug Control Headquarters.

During the visit His Excellency Ambassador Mitsugu Saito of Japan and Deputy Head of Mission of the Netherlands Embassy, Ms. Yvette Daoud, were present. The visit which started with statement from Customs and presentation on different customs recent achievements was followed by remarks of Director General of Drug Supply Reduction of DCHQ and UNODC Country Representative.

Mr. Alexander Fedulov, UNODC Country Representative in the Islamic Republic of Iran in his remarks appreciated the hard work of Iranian Customs in fight against drugs and highlighted the importance of drug detecting dogs as a useful tool in identifying hidden concealments. According to him, the drug detecting dogs are responsible for considerable amount of Iran’s annual seizures. Mr. Fedulov also appreciated the generous donations from Government of Japan which has supported Iranian Government through the capacity building activities planned and implemented by UNODC as well as the technical support received from the Dutch Embassy in Iran. His excellency Ambassador of Japan Mr. Saito mentioned that Japan will continue providing support to Iranian partners to fight with drug trafficking.

The manager of the Iranian Customs K9 Center, Mr. Yousefi, in his statements expressed his gratitude from the continuous support that UNODC has extended to Iranian customs and specifically the customs dogs center and hoped the support will continue and increase in the future.

The visit was followed by a tour around the centre to show the facilities and kennels which are designed and built with the highest standards.  Later, the K9 teams demonstrated their capacities and learnings from the recently training course held by UNODC. The teams were able to identify hidden drugs in various situations including vehicles, cargos and luggage as well as drugs being carried by passengers in a setting that aimed to resemble passengers’ terminal.

During this event the Iranian Customs also received specially modified dry dog food procured as part of the activities foreseen in the framework of the Sup-programme 1 “Border Management and Illicit Trafficking” of UNODC Country Partnership Programme (2015-2019) for the Islamic Republic through UNODC which was generously donated from people of Japan for use of K9 teams during the intense operation periods.

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For additional information please contact Hossein Asgarian (Mr.),

Programme Officer, and/or Amir Hossein Vaziri (Mr.), Programme Associate

UNODC Country Office in the Islamic Republic of Iran Tel.: +98 21 88 87 83 77,

emails: Hossein.asgarian@un.org

Amirhossein.vaziri@un.org