This is real frontier territory, bandit country where kidnappings and murders are common place.
The smugglers and fighters that the Iranian government says are linked to al-Qaeda are as well armed and organised as any guerrilla army.
According to the Iranian authorities, in the last 30 years more than 3,000 Iranian security personnel have been killed in the region.
As we sped towards the border, I looked at the young faces of the soldiers with us, some barely out of their teens.
Several told me they were on military service, others had chosen to join the Iranian border police because of its elite reputation.
They were all keen to put on a brave face for the cameras even though one of their officers had been killed while out on a similar patrol just a week earlier.
Rugged mountains
Iran's border with Afghanistan and Pakistan spans hundreds of kilometres, some of it is completely flat, other parts divided by rugged mountains.
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| More than 3,000 security personnel have been killed |
The Iranians were keen to show off their new tactics in the fight against the smugglers.
In the more level sections of the border they have spent years, and it has to be said millions of dollars, building a huge security wall, as well as digging out trenches that span into the horizon.
They hope it will stop the narcotics from flooding in.
One police colonel said: "These barriers aren't 100 per cent impenetrable, but they slow them down. By slowing them down, we can take their time away, and by doing that we will be more successful in fighting and capturing them."
He also admitted that the desert winds can often fill up the trenches with soil in a matter of days.
The smugglers also have ropes and ladders that can help them get across, and of course much of the mountainous border has no defence at all.
Facing execution
That is how Doost Borhan Zehi, an Iranian Baluchi, managed to sneak across.
He was caught with around half a tonne of opium and dozens of AK47s.
He now faces life in prison or even execution if the weapons are linked to the death of any soldiers.
The police told me he was no ordinary criminal, that he was buying and selling drugs from Afghanistan, something Doost vehemently denied.
He said: "I had a hard life, actually no life at all. All I had was a piece of dry bread to eat, so they hired me to do their work and they gave me money. We didn't buy or sell, we are not the buyers or sellers.
"I seek refuge in God, and I give my fate to God, whatever he wills I surrender, I think that if I am released I won't be involved again."
But the chances of Doost ever being released are very slim.
As he was taken away I wondered how many more men like Doost were down in those cells, and what would happen to them now.
Spectacular sunset
Doost used the mountain paths to get his cargo into Iran and that is where we were heading next.
As night started to fall, a spectacular sunset filled the sky with orange and red, but there was no time to appreciate its beauty, as the platoon suddenly jumped out of its vehicles and scrambled up the mountain slopes.
This is where it would be embedded for the night, waiting to ambush its enemy.
This is also where our journey ended, we were told that it would be far too dangerous for us to stay.
As we headed back to base I thought of these young men, proud of their uniforms and uncertain of what lay ahead.
"I am a policeman," one of them told me. "My job is to fight the smugglers and bandits and it's my responsibility to protect my country's borders, and I will do my job even if it costs my life."