Man held for 'opium toffees'
2006-01-12 21:49
Tehran - An American-Iranian national has been arrested in Tehran for trying to fly out of the country with 11kg of opium hidden in toffees, the governmental Iran newspaper said on Thursday.
According to Iran's penal code, the trafficking of more than 5kg of opium carries the death penalty.
The alleged trafficker was arrested on December 2 2005, at Tehran's Mehrabad airport while trying to board a plane to Europe.
He was only identified as a "young man" and a "Iranian national also holding US nationality".
"A few months ago I came to Iran and I wanted to take back some drugs, so I came up with this idea," he was quoted as confessing to police.
"I bought a lot of chocolate toffees and filled them with opium and skilfully placed them back in their boxes."
Police made the discovery after being surprised over the huge quantity of chocolates he was carrying - even though Iranians are well known for having a sweet tooth.
- AFP