Nine individuals convicted of drug trafficking have been executed by hanging in Iran, according to state media.
Three were hanged “over the past few days” in a jail in Ardabil province, in the northwest of the country, for purchasing and transporting heroin and opium, Iran’s official news agency, IRNA, reported.
The remaining six were separately executed for trafficking methamphetamine, heroin and cannabis, Irna added, without giving further details.
One of the world’s highest consumers of narcotics, Iran is also a lead transit route for drugs originating from neighbouring Afghanistan, the main global provider of opium poppy, the raw material for heroin.
Authorities in Iran have consistently launched campaigns to tackle drug addiction and trafficking, regularly reporting major seizures of smuggled opiates from Afghanistan.
Figures cited in 2021 by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) suggest there are 2.8 million people in Iran with a drug problem.
In June, Amnesty International stated that at least 173 people had received death sentences for drug-related crimes in the first five months of 2023.
According to the NGO, Iran carries out more executions per year than any other country, apart from China.
The Iran Human Rights (IHR) group, based in Norway, announced in November that the Islamic Republic had executed over 700 people in 2023, the highest number in the last eight years.
