TEHRAN – The deputy chief of the police announced on Sunday that a new department has been established within police to counter economic disruption.

Brigadier General Ayyoub Soleimani said several branches of the new department, named “economic security police”, have been set up in several provinces with big shares of the country’s economy, Tasnim reported.

Soleimani said the department was formed in response to a series of hostile plots to disrupt the national economy.

The economic security police focuses on plans to tackle problems hampering production, the general stated, expressing the hope for a reduction in economic crimes including fuel smuggling, livestock smuggling, and problems in the supply of consumer goods to the public.

Back in December 2018, police chief Brigadier General Hossein Ashtari announced that his forces have taken the tough line with wrongdoers over economic crimes.

Police and Judiciary have ramped up efforts in recent months to tackle economic corruption.

Since August 2018, the Judiciary has begun to hold public trials of individuals involved in major economic corruption cases.

The names of defendants were made public after Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei permitted the Judiciary to take special measures in order to confront economic corruption and called for “swift and just” legal action against financial crimes.

MH/PA