Iran hanged a drug trafficker nicknamed the “Crocodile of the Persian Gulf” and one of his accomplices.[1] Both men were executed at the central prison in Bandar Abbas, the capital of Hormozgan Province.[2] The hanged leader was 36-year-old Eisa Zamin Koofte, whom the broadcaster Radio Farda named after officials released only the initials A.Z.[3] Radio Farda identified the second hanged man as Masih Hatami, the second suspect in the case, after rights reporters named him.[4] Hormozgan’s chief prosecutor, Ali Salehi, called Koofte the leader of “one of the biggest and most vicious drug-trafficking networks in Iran and the region”.[5] The judiciary said 18 other members of the network had been convicted in the case.[5] Iranian officials said all 18 were sentenced to life in prison.[3] The BBC reported that other members received up to five years or heavy fines, and that the gang’s property was seized.[1]

Salehi said the network had smuggled more than 400 tonnes of drugs into Iran.[5] Koofte was arrested in 2015 while moving more than 100 tonnes of narcotics through international waters.[1] The prosecutor said the intelligence work that led to the arrest lasted four to five years.[5] Salehi alleged that Koofte laundered about 20 trillion rials, the equivalent of $147 million, through Iranian real estate.[3] Haft-e Sobh reported that the network brought its loads in by speedboat and dhow through the southern waters rather than the eastern land border.[6] The same daily said the cargo was opium and put the total at about 400 tonnes.[6]

Iran’s anti-narcotics law makes possession of more than five kilograms of opium or hashish, a cannabis-based drug, punishable by death.[3] The hangings were announced on 25 January 2020, but officials did not say on which day they were carried out.[7] Haft-e Sobh placed the executions at dawn on 23 January, three days earlier.[6]