Police arrested three men and seized more than two tons of hashish Sunday from an oil truck in Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, an official said. Elsewhere, troops uncovered a large stash of morphine.

The 2,100 kilograms (4,630 pounds) of hashish was hidden in specially built chambers in the truck, Karachi police official Sanaullah Abbasi said. The seizure was made at a roadblock following a tip-off, Abbasi said. Drug trafficking can carry the death penalty in Pakistan. The truck's driver and two other men in the vehicle - all Pakistanis - were arrested and will be formally charged after an investigation, Abbasi said.

A fourth man in the truck escaped, he said. Also Sunday, paramilitary troops seized 1,100 kilograms (2,425 pounds) of morphine found in a dry riverbed in southwestern Baluchistan province, near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, said Lt Col Rizwan Malik, a spokesman for the Frontier Corps. No one has been arrested over the morphine seizure, Malik said. Pakistan straddles a route for illegal drugs destined mainly for the Middle East and Europe.

Officials believe that most drugs seized in Pakistan - mainly hashish and heroin - originate in neighbouring Afghanistan, the world's largest producer of poppies, used to make opium and heroin.

PHOTO CAPTION

Afghan poppy farmers extract raw opium from poppy heads in fields in Zhera disrict, west of Kandahar city, Afghanistan April 29, 2005. (REUTERS)