An investigation by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting has found that a high number of children from four villages studied in the Ghoryan district of Afghanistan are becoming entrenced in heroin smuggling into Iran.
An estimated 60 children in these villages have died from swallowing heroin capsules as part of the smuggling efforts, while another 1,000 have gone missing while attempting to cross the Iranian border.
The children are paid approximately $260 to smuggle five capsules a time. The crystallized version of the drug sells for $1,200 per kilogram in Afghanistan—and double that amount in Iran.
“The smugglers exploit our poverty and obligations,” says Aarash, one of the children from the villages who has trafficked crystal heroin. Children are particularly attractive to smugglers because they are not executed in Iran—unlike adults.
Border police apparently do little to stop the heroin trade and often help facilitate it; last year,Mulhim Khan, the general in charge of the Herat border police, was arrested by the Iranian authorities in Islam Qala on charges related to drug smuggling.