Three Thousand Containers of Smuggled Goods Enter Iran Daily

Amir Khajasteh, head of the Economic Corruption Combat faction in Parliament, warned the head of the Anti-Smuggling Organization on Thursday, February 3, that three thousand containers of smuggled goods enter Iran daily. According to Tasnim News Agency, Amir Khajasteh added that he explicitly told the head of the organization in Parliament, 'You are betraying this country.' He emphasized, 'The Anti-Smuggling Organization should not be asleep.' This representative of Parliament or Tasnim News Agency referred to the Anti-Smuggling Organization, which was established in 2002 by the order of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, with the aim of 'creating a central hub for combating smuggling of goods and currency.' The head of the Central Anti-Smuggling Organization is appointed by the President, and currently, Habibollah Haghighi holds this position. For over a year, the plan to form a cross-branch organization to combat economic corruption has been on the agenda of Parliament representatives. Ali Tayebnia, Iran's Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance, stated last Tuesday in a public session of Parliament that based on the statistics from the Central Anti-Smuggling Organization, the annual value of smuggling into Iran is decreasing. He said, 'In the first eight months of 2016, the amount of seized smuggled goods increased by 117%, and according to the Central Anti-Smuggling Organization's report, the smuggling figure dropped from 25 billion dollars to 15 billion dollars.' The Minister of Economy emphasized, '70% of smuggled goods enter Iran through unofficial channels.' According to Mr. Tayebnia, '10 of these illegal routes are in three western provinces of Iran.' At the same time, Brigadier General Hossein Ashtari, the commander of the police force, announced that tackling the smuggling mafia is a priority for the police. According to Hossein Ashtari, 'The actions of the police in dealing with such crimes have led to a 40% increase in seizures this year compared to the same period last year.' He previously emphasized that a significant portion of smuggling in Iran is organized. Smuggling of goods and currency in Iran is considered one of the obstacles to the growth of legal production and trade, and for many years, combating smuggling has been on the agenda of various branches of power. However, discussions about the consequences and implications of smuggling occasionally arise. The debate over 'invisible docks' or the involvement of military, police, and intelligence forces in smuggling through the routes under their control and 'invisible docks' has been a controversial topic in the media for the past two decades. Mehdi Karroubi, the sixth Parliament's speaker in 2002, was the first to report the existence of 33 unauthorized docks controlled by military and police institutions, which became known in Iran's economic and political discourse as 'invisible docks.' Subsequently, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former president of Iran, stated in July 2011 that several institutions and organizations import goods through illegal docks and borders and that they must be stopped, referring to these forces as 'brother smugglers.' A day after Ahmadinejad's criticism, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards emphasized that the institution under his command 'like other military institutions, has military docks at its disposal, but no commercial transactions are conducted there.' Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, also stated in February 2016, without naming any specific organization, that 'a corrupt institution that... can import smuggled goods prevents the country from growing.' In this context, the deputy of the Intelligence of the Revolutionary Guards promised to announce 'important news' about the fight against corruption, denying the arrest of several members of the Revolutionary Guards due to 'economic corruption.' The Tehran prosecutor stated that traditional methods cannot combat corruption.