By Al-Fassel | 2024-11-27

Drug smuggling from Iran to markets in the Middle East and beyond is expanding, officials warned last year, forcing the region's governments to enhance coordination to curb the sale and abuse of illegal narcotics.

Illegal drugs produced in Iran are being trafficked across the Middle East and beyond by groups linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that seek to generate revenue for activities that support the Iranian regime's agenda.

In early November, Turkish customs officials seized more than 4.5 tons of methamphetamine (crystal meth) in three trucks crossing into Türkiye from Iran.

The border seizures accounted for more than half of nearly nine tons of methamphetamine seized over a two week period, according to Türkiye's interior minister Ali Yerlikaya.

Of this amount, 3.5 tons were seized in Istanbul, he said, and the rest in other cities including Izmir in the west and Hakkari near the border with Iran and Iraq, AFP reported.

Turkish police confiscated nearly 22 tons of methamphetamine last year, a sharp increase over previous years, according to official figures.

Methamphetamine is a stimulant whose effects are two to five times more intense and long-lasting than amphetamine, with greater addictive potential, experts say.

The synthetic drug is sold in the form of crystals, powder, capsules or tablets.

The European Union Drugs Agency says the increase in methamphetamine seizures in Türkiye could be explained by a rise in production in Iran and Afghanistan.

A regional problem

IRGC-aligned militias in several countries have been engaged in the manufacture, smuggling and trafficking of drugs -- including crystal meth, opiates, Captagon and hashish -- across the region.

The trade in illicit narcotics provides a revenue stream for these militias that helps them fund their activities and stock their weapons arsenals.

IRGC-aligned militias have sought to expand their smuggling operations across Iran's border with Iraq, and Iraq's border with Syria, sources told Al-Fassel.

In Iraq, Iran-aligned militias such as Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Kataib Hizbullah and Harakat al-Nujaba "have strong influence on the border strip with Syria," political analyst Abdul Qader al-Nayel told Al-Fassel.

"They secure and direct the flow of drugs through unofficial smuggling crossings that they opened several years ago between the Iraqi city of al-Qaim and the Syrian city of Deir Ezzor," he said.

On Iraq's eastern border with Iran in Diyala province, IRGC-aligned Iraqi militias have been smuggling weapons and illicit drugs into Iraq, which is at increasing risk of becoming a regional hub for drug trafficking, Iraqi sources said.

IRGC-aligned militias also are involved in smuggling illegal drugs across the region from facilities in Syria and Lebanon controlled by Lebanese Hizbullah.