KABUL - The Criminal Justice Task Force (CJTF) said on Saturday its appeal court had sentenced an Iranian national to 20 years in prison for trafficking 90 kilograms of heroin into Afghanistan.
Arrested by local police in the Abresham area of Nimroz province, the convict had been transporting goods on his truck between Iran and Afghanistan for eight years, a CJTF official said.

The-40-year old confessed to his crime during investigations and the subsequent trial, saying he had been paid 600,000 Iranian tomans to transport one kilogram of heroin from Nimroz to Iran.

Farooq Fayez, a CJTF prosecutor dealing with the case, said the Iranian was a professional drug trafficker who was arrested red-handed while trying to smuggle 90 kg of heroin. "During the investigation, we found he trafficked narcotics from Afghanistan to Iran many times."

The prosecutor said that Article 64 of the Counter-Narcotics Law regarding a reduction in the sentence if the detainee presented information about his accomplices was explained to the man, but he rejected the offer.