ISLAMABAD Apr 3. Two of Pakistan s most notorious drug lords have been extradited to the Unites States when' they will face prosecution for more than 100 counts of heroin and hashish smuggling. US officials said on Monday, reports AB.

Iqbal Haig and Anwar Khattak were put on a US govern ment plane on Sunday evening only hours after their appeals against extradition were turner! down by the High Court in Rawalpindi, the city adjacent Io the' capital of Islamabad.

Thye're gone.’ Jack McCreary. a spokesman for the US Information Service in Islamabad. said on Monday morning.

The two men were expected to arrive on Monday at a. military base on the East Coast of the Unified States but officials said they didn't know which one. They were likely to be arraigned shortly after their arrival, the officials added.

Baig and Khattak together ran one of Pakistan's biggest heroin and hashish trafficking ■ networks, according to US and! Pakistani officials.' Both were

imprisoned in Pakistan where they had been convicted of drug smuggling.

Baig and Khattak will face 102 counts of smuggling heroin and hashish into the United States and the trials are likely to take place id el ther Brooklyn. New York, or Michigan, where the alleged offenses occurred, a US official said

Their extradition appeared timed to precede Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto s vistt to the United States, which begins on Wednesday.

The Unites States has pressured Pakistan to crack down on drug trafficking, and Benazir has said she will be seeking US help to combat the drug smuggling and terrorism that plague her country.

She has tried to portray her country as a moderate Islamic sfete In need of Western assistance. and the extraditions are likely to Win her support from US officials.

This is the second high-profile extradition case involving the United States and Pakistan in recent months.