TEHRAN, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Intelligence Ministry announced on Sunday that its forces have seized one of the biggest hauls of heroin in Iranian northwestern province of West Azerbaijan.

In a statement, the ministry said that the confiscated illicit drug weighs 1,075 kilograms, Tasnim news agency reported.

The shipment was detected at Bazargan border region in northwest Iran before an international drug ring could smuggle it into Europe, the statement was quoted as saying.

The smugglers had hidden the illicit drug inside the export commodities, the statement added.

Iran has long suffered from drug trafficking, as it is at the crossroad of international drug smuggling from Afghanistan, the world's top opium producer, to Europe.

Over the past decades, Iran's eastern and southeastern border have seen clashes between Iranian security forces and armed drug smugglers.