NCRI – The value of goods and currency smuggled into Iran each year has now soared to $19 billion, according to a report from the regime’s finance ministry.
Smuggled goods now account for 35 per cent of all Iran’s imports – which observers believe would only be possible in the dictatorship with the active involvement of rulers and officials.
The latest smuggling figures are also more than three times higher than the $6 billion the regime had claimed it to be last year.
According to official reports, ships packed with smuggled goods arrive at offshore ports without being controlled by customs officers and are then transported into Iran by the Revolutionary Guards.
According to one report from May 2004, the IRGC have been using offshore ports in Chabahar, Khorzangi and Hormozgan for nine years for the transit of illegal, smuggled goods.
Some companies that run the offshore ports and are set up by the IRGC for the illegal export of arms have already been named by the US Department of the Treasury for violating United Nations Security Council resolutions.
