Police in Iran have arrested 1,652 people for smuggling alcohol, seizing 281,616 bottles in a crackdown in the western province of Hamedan, reported the official Iranian news agency, IRNA, citing a local press report on Wednesday.
"The smugglers brought in the wine thorough the western borders and intended to distribute [it] in the country," the daily Qods reported, quoting the province's Police Chief Brigadier-General Hamid Sadr Al Sadat.
His remarks were made on the sidelines of a ceremony to destroy some 60,000 bottles of alcohol seized from smugglers.
Alcohol consumption in Iran, under Islamic law, is punishable by flogging, even when there is no evidence that it has caused intoxication – Albawaba.com
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