Draft:Gholamreza Baghbani

Gholamreza Baghbani (born 1960 in Zabol) is an officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Baghbani ran for the Islamic Consultative Assembly in the 2011 elections from the Zahidan constituency.

This top commander of the IRGC Quds Force has been accused by the United States Treasury of involvment in drug as a Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficker. The statement by the United States Trasury stated: “Today’s action exposes IRGC-QF involvement in trafficking narcotics, made doubly reprehensible here because it is done as part of a broader scheme to support terrorism. Treasury will continue exposing narcotics traffickers and terrorist supporters wherever they operate,” then-Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen said. Moreover, the I.R.G.C. has contributed to Afghanistan’s instability and growing opium cultivation and trade there by assisting Taliban groups fighting in western and southern Afghan provinces - a region where most of Afghanistan's narcotics are cultivated and produced.

Iran is one of the most important drug-trafficking crossings in the world, and most of the drugs produced in Afghanistan are smuggled to European countries through Iran and by the IRGC.

He has been accused by the Italian government of taking an important part in drug trafficking. Italian security sources revealed that “this network includes nine Iraqis affiliated with the Iraqi Hashd al-Shaabi militia led by a commander of the IRGC named Gholamreza Baghbani, who smuggled drugs through Iraq and Turkey to Italy and from there to Europe.”