[Al Arabiya Latest] More than 1,000 Iranians have been arrested over the past seven months in possession of drugs on their way to Mecca in Saudi Arabia to perform Ummra, or lesser pilgrimage, according to official Iranian sources.Last year, 336 pilgrims were arrested carrying around seven kilograms of drugs, but this year the number reached 1,069 people and 14 kilograms, said Hussein Abbadi, chief of Iran's anti-drugs police.
"Saudi authorities also arrested this year 160 Iranians for possession of drugs and they were sent to jail," he told the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA).
Abbadi added that the percentage of drug trafficking to Saudi has increased by 52 percent and that the Iranian police is intensifying its efforts to eliminate this phenomenon.
In a meeting held by the Iranian Anti-Narcotics Commission, which president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad participated in, Abbadi submitted a report about the latest arrests of pilgrims heading for Saudi.
"A committee was formed of representatives of the Anti-Narcotics Commission, hajj officials, and police officers in order to figure out the best way to combat this phenomenon as well as solve the problem of Iranian detainees in Saudi."
Last year, the number of Iranian pilgrims reached 780,000, 223 of which were arrested by the Saudi authorities. 160 Iranians were charged with drug possession while the rest were arrested for other charges like fighting with other pilgrims, theft, and smoking in the Mecca shrine.
According to official Iranian sources, Iran is the biggest consumer of opium all over the world and having common borders with Afghanistan makes the availability of drugs much easier.
Iran has 1,200,000 drug addicts, of which 12,000 are dangerous addicts, according to the Anti-Narcotics Commission.