Iran hangs ten drug smugglers: report DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran hanged 10 people convicted of drug trafficking on Monday, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported, part of what rights group Amnesty International called a "state killing spree." Executions are regular events in Tehran, and the latest took place in a prison in the capital. Iran is a transit route for narcotics smuggled from neighboring Afghanistan, which produces more than 90 percent of the world's opium, the raw ingredient of heroin. In a statement later on Monday Amnesty condemned the executions, saying they were part of a "state killing spree." "While Iran's security forces have a right to prosecute individuals for offences connected to the production and supply of illegal drugs, drugs offences do not meet the threshold of 'most serious crimes' to which the death penalty must be restricted under international law," Amnesty's statement said.