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To travel to the sand dunes of the eastern Dasht-e Lut we had to organize an armed escort from MERSAD, the military branch of the police that tries to stop drug trafficking. By the time we entered the Lut, our escort included one colonel and a total of twelve cars (plus our three) with an average of six Iranian MERSAD men per car, and about half of them had large caliber guns mounted in the back. The MERSAD cars formed a rough perimeter around our camp at night, lit bonfires, and kept sentries awake to guard us in shifts. This is a major smuggling route for heroin traffickers moving from Pakistan and Afghanistan to Turkey, and we were required to have them come with us to prevent us from being kidnapped.

Here George Steinmetz readies his paramotor.

Filename
STNMTZ_20031101_34.tif
Copyright
©2006 George Steinmetz
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7264x4812 / 100.0MB
www.georgesteinmetz.com
Contained in galleries
Salt Deserts of Iran
To travel to the sand dunes of the eastern Dasht-e Lut we had to organize an armed escort from MERSAD, the military branch of the police that tries to stop drug trafficking. By the time we entered the Lut, our escort included one colonel and a total of twelve cars (plus our three) with an average of six Iranian MERSAD men per car, and about half of them had large caliber guns mounted in the back. The MERSAD cars formed a rough perimeter around our camp at night, lit bonfires, and kept sentries awake to guard us in shifts. This is a major smuggling route for heroin traffickers moving from Pakistan and Afghanistan to Turkey, and we were required to have them come with us to prevent us from being kidnapped.<br /> <br /> Here George Steinmetz readies his paramotor.

All images ©George Steinmetz. Please contact us for usage.