Azerbaijan detains members of Iran-linked drug gang PHOTO/VIDEO

The Azerbaijani Interior Ministry has detained 36 "members of a criminal gang" which is involved in the trafficking of large volumes of narcotics from Iran to Azerbaijan.

The suspects had been detained in a series of police operations carried out in Baku and regions over the past 20 days. A total of 114 kg of different kinds of narcotics and 3,000 tablets of methadone and ecstasy were seized, APA news agency reported on 1 February, quoting the Interior Ministry.

In addition, 30 suspected drug dealers have also been detained, with some of them being the main suppliers of narcotics in the country. The report added that efforts were continuing to detain other members of the drug ring inside and outside the country.

The detentions come on the heels of worsening Tehran-Baku relations following a deadly assault on the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran on January 27.