Three Iranians kidnapped from Iran to Afghan western province of Herat have been handed over to the Iran consulate in Heart Saturday, an Afghan official said Monday.

"The three Iranians were kidnapped by some Afghan persons from the border province of Iran to Afghan Herat province for financial problems among each other. We have rescued them from the kidnappers and handed them over to the Iranian consulate on Saturday," Nesar Ahmad Paikar, the provincial criminal department director told Xinhua.

"They were kept in a house of a village for one year, eight months and five months respectively, and were recently moved to a house in Herat city. We got the information and rescued them from the house, except one lady escaped from the house," he added.

The director also said this kind of affairs often happen in the border area between Afghanistan and Iran.

"This kind of kidnappings happen often because the financial conflicts among different drug dealers. When one side cannot pay the money for the drug in time, another part will kidnap the smugglers even the family members of the smugglers," a local official said under the condition of anonymity.

Afghanistan is the origin of Western and Northern drug routes into Iran and Central Asia. Herat is the western border province between the two countries, where many illegal activities about drug dealing happen frequently and every year a big amount of drug will flow from Afghanistan to Iran.

"With the support and cooperation among the central government, the provincial police and Afghan National Army, we have reduced the amount of drug smuggling at about 60 percent after the collapse of Taliban," the director of campaign against narcotics of Herat Hayatollah Heidaryan told Xinhua Monday.

Source: Xinhua