There are close to 200,000 professional thieves operating in various parts of the country, according to a recent report by the Law Enforcement Force of the Islamic Republic of Iran (NAJA).
This is the first time that a law enforcement agency in Iran discloses such detailed data on the widespread problem of theft in the country.
Major-General Ayyub Soleimani, the deputy commander of NAJA, said: “Organized gangs and career criminals commit close to 65 percent of all the burglaries in Iran.”
“There seem to be more robbers operating in various cities and towns this year,” Commander Soleimani added. “Unemployment, the high cost of living, a depressed economy and rampant drug addiction have contributed to the higher-than-usual incidents of theft.”
“There has been a significant increase in the number of reported robberies in the provinces of Tehran, Alborz, Khorasan Razavi, Khuzestan, Fars, Isfahan, and Kerman,” Soleimani noted. “Many of the neighborhood thefts are crimes of opportunity committed by drug addicts or people who have bee jobless for a long period.”
Translated from Persian by Fardine Hamidi
