Six men convicted of drug trafficking have been hanged in the Iranian capital, a newspaper reported Tuesday.
"Six men who were members of an international gang ... were hanged in the Qasr prison campus after the verdict was upheld by the Supreme Court," the daily Iran said quoted by The Associated Press.
The report said the men, who were hanged Saturday, had smuggled narcotics such as opium, heroin and morphine from neighboring Pakistan and Afghanistan. The newspaper gave no further details.
Police meanwhile seized over 9 1/2 pounds of heroin and arrested two drug traffickers in Khorramabad, in the central Lorestan province on Tuesday, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
In a separate report, the agency said anti-drug agents clashed with drug traffickers in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan on Monday and seized 2 1/2 tons of opium.
Police confiscated weapons and a vehicle but the traffickers were able to flee to neighboring Pakistan, the agency quoted a police official as saying.
On Sunday, also in Sistan-Baluchistan, a passerby was killed when troops clashed with armed drug traffickers, the agency said.
Police arrested three traffickers in the operation and seized 1,100 pounds of heroin and 507 pounds of opium.
Drug hauls and clashes with traffickers are not uncommon in Iran, a Muslim nation which sits on a major route used by smugglers to move drugs from Afghanistan and Pakistan to the markets of the Gulf and beyond, said the agency.
Saudi Arabia and Iran are about to conclude a security pact on drug curbing and other crime-related issues, according to reports – (Several Sources)
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