ASUNCION – A drug enforcement agent and a suspected drug trafficker died in a shootout in Itapua, a province in southern Paraguay, while three other people were wounded, the National Anti-Drug Secretariat, or Senad, said.

Senad agent Silverio Vazquez and the unidentified drug trafficker were killed in Bella Vista, a town near the border with Argentina’s Misiones province, the drug enforcement agency said.

Reinaldo Urizar, another Senad agent, and two other suspected drug traffickers were wounded in the gunfight, officials said.

The shootout started when the agents tried to make an arrest in front of a hotel in Bella Vista, Senad said.

Paraguay, according to experts, is South America’s main marijuana producer and a transit nation for cocaine shipments from other countries in the region. EFE