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Drug Smugglers Kill Three Iran Border Guards
[An Nahar] Three Iranian border guards were killed in festivities with armed narcos near the border with Pakistain, Iranian media reported on Thursday, citing a border official.Two narcos were also killed in the clash near the region of Koshtegan in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, Colonel Mehdi Mansourzadeh said. Mansourzadeh said Iran had seized 50 tons of various drugs in the frontier regions with Afghanistan and Pakistain during the past six months. Iran is a major transit route for drugs trafficked from leading narcotics producer Afghanistan, with much of the substances bound for Western countries. The Islamic republic says it is fighting a deadly war against narcos who make up half its prison population. Drug trafficking is punishable by death. More than 4,000 coppers and soldiers have been killed during the past three decades in festivities with the traffickers, who often travel in heavily armed convoys, according to officials. Iran has spent more than $700 million on building a "wall" along lengthy stretches of its 1,700-kilometer (1,050-mile) eastern border with Afghanistan and Pakistain in a bid to stop the trafficking, officials say. Posted by: Fred 2012-10-12 |
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