IRAN POLICE KILL 9 DRUG TRAFFICKERS

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Police have carried out a major crackdown on
drug trafficking and abuse during the past week, arresting 11,892
addicts and traders, and killing nine traffickers in shootouts,
Iran's official news agency said Sunday.

Police confiscated 1,949 pounds of drugs in the four-day sweep
conducted across the nation, the Islamic Republic News Agency said.
Seven trafficking rings were destroyed.

The secretary general of Iran's anti-drug department, Mohammad
Fallah, said 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 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 587-mile border with Afghanistan in an attempt to cut
down on banditry and drug trafficking.