The Independent on Sunday, 13 July 2008 (excerpts) – Worsening tension between Iran and the West has been given a new twist by the revelation that the Royal Navy and allied forces have intercepted smuggled narcotics worth more than £800m coming out of Iranian ports. Much of the money, it is claimed, helps to fund the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Although raids on drugs-carrying dhows have been going on for several months near the sensitive Straits of Hormuz, at the mouth of the Gulf, they have only now been made public.
Afghanistan is responsible for 93 per cent of the world’s supply of heroin, half of which is smuggled out through Iran.