20 Aug

Map of the Week: Illicit Drug Trade in the Middle East

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Joel Pomeroy

While much attention has been focused on the restoration of commercial trade routes in the Middle East, countries in the region have sought to end another type of international exchange–the illicit drug trade. Markets for illegal substances, in particular synthetic stimulants such as methamphetamine and fenethylline (commonly known as captagon), have become prevalent in recent years in several Middle Eastern countries. The trade is an ongoing battle between countries trying to stop criminal networks and traffickers developing new strategies to circumvent those policies. The map highlights where authorities have made seizures of two of the most traded drugs, methamphetamine and captagon.

Much of the methamphetamine begins in Afghanistan, which has been the world’s fastest-growing producer ever since the Taliban cracked down on opiate production. In Afghanistan, many criminal networks cheaply harvest the ephedra plant, which grows in the wild and contains ephedrine, a methamphetamine precursor. Traffickers transport the illicit drugs into transit hubs such as Iran and Turkey, some of which makes its way to Europe.

Like methamphetamine, captagon is a synthetic stimulant, known scientifically as fenethylline. The primary hub for captagon, however, is the Levant. Much of the production is in Syria, where the Assad regime encouraged the lucrative trade as a means to fund the Ba’athist forces during the costly Syrian Civil War. The trade spilled over across the region with former Syrian government allies, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, also deeply involved in smuggling networks that target the wealthy nations of the Arabian Peninsula such as Saudi Arabia.

Middle Eastern nations, together with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), have worked to curb the illicit drug networks, intercepting the narcotics before they can cross borders. Iran has recently been highlighted by UNODC for the success of its counternarcotics operations against large-scale shipments of methamphetamine arriving from Afghanistan. While some observers have criticized the close partnership of the UN agency with Iran, a country with a history of human rights abuses, others have hailed the country for acting as a buffer against the spread of dangerous and addictive drugs.

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