Iraq’s National Organization for Combating Drugs has expressed concern about the increase of drug-smuggling, according to a report in the London-based A-Sharq Al-Awsat.
Concerns were heightened after the Iraqi government said it would allow Iranian visitors to enter Iraq, officials said. The organization said the “drug epidemic” has become yet another path of death for Iraq’s youth and it is harming Iraq’s reputation.
The Iraqi Ministry of Health said there have been several deaths as a result of drugs, mostly in the Karbala district. A-Sharq Al-Awsat said that under Saddam Hussein’s rule, few statistics concerning drug use in Iraq were made public to the international community and they all indicated that Iraq was nearly free of drug problems.
Dr. Falah Al-Mihna, a member of the organization, told the paper that the war in Iraq created a lack of security which enabled drug trafficking to flourish. He said Iraq has become a transit state for transferring drugs to the Gulf and other countries in the region.
Al-Mihna also said that interrogation of detained drug traffickers revealed that the route from East Asia through Iraq has become a path for trading drugs, weapons, Iraqi antiquities and stolen oil. The traders are of various nationalities and many have links with regional governments, he said.
According to A-Sharq Al-Awsat, reports issued by the United Nations said there are two main paths to Iraq which have become gold mines for drug mafias who utilize the porous and unguarded borders for the drug trade. One path is on the Iran-Iraq border and the second route runs from central Asia and through the Kurdistan area in northern Iraq to eastern European countries.
The U.N. report said Iraq has not just become a transit station for drugs, but is also used for distribution and smuggling. It said drug trafficking in Iraq has become more organized over the past two years and frequently is intertwined with armed networks who recruit unemployed Iraqis or people with military training.
U.N. officials have pointed an accusing finger at Iraq’s neighbor, Iran, which also suffers from drug problems. Iraqi security authorities have said that many of the drug traffickers arrested in Iraq were carrying Iranian citizenship.