11 DRUG-DEALERS KILLED, 2,500 ARRESTED IN SWOOP ON DRUGS

TEHRAN - Eleven drug-traffickers were killed in shoot-out with Iranian
police which arrested 2,500 others and rounded up some 9,300 addicts in a
major national crackdown on drugs last week, a police source said Tuesday.

Brigadier-General Mehdi Abouei, director-general of police anti-drug
headquarters, told IRNA that over one ton of drugs were seized in the
operation which was conducted to mark the Anti-Drugs Week in Iran.

Over 1,000 "drug-infested regions" were cleaned up in the same operations,
Abouei said.

According to the secretary general of Iran's anti-drug department, Mohammad
Fallah, iran has 1.2 million drug addicts and another 800,000 occasional
drug users.

Fallah said that 3,111 Iranian police officers and soldiers have been
killed in clashes with drug traffickers since 1979.

Iran is a major route for smuggling drugs from Afghanistan and Pakistan to
markets in the Persian Gulf, Europe and beyond. Opium, heroin, hashish and
morphine are taken across the country. Single busts involving a ton or more
of drugs are not uncommon.

Last year, Iran erected outposts and an electronically monitored fence
along the 945-kilometer (587-mile) border with Afghanistan in an attempt to
cut down on banditry and drug trafficking.