Iraqi forces are struggling, on the northern front, in a bloody battles with Daesh organization which controls large areas there , but in the south there is a battle of another type that its source is from Iran. Iraqi forces are struggling in the Basra , predominantly Shiite city , large quantities of drugs that often sneak across the border into Iraq, and recently caused the transformation of many teenagers from taking alcoholic beverages to take white powder which has become hugely popular in the city. During the past three years, a pandemic of drug sweeps the city of Basra across the methamphetamine powder , “the Iranian crystals that is produced in Iran before being smuggled in large quantities across the border.
specialists in drug affairs in Iraq affirmed that it has been increased the scope of drug trade taken by young people, warning of the dangers of this phenomenon on the society. They assert that drugs of all kinds today became available in the province of Basra, as anyone can get them without trouble due to the lack of firm monitoring and follow-up by the state agencies as well as the law in this city has become a thing of the past due to the control of armed gangs on the fate of Basra with all its details . And that security and administrative authorities in the province do not have sufficient capacity to root out this scourge, which arrived to the universities . Observers add that the price of cigarettes, “hashish” does not exceed the dollar and a half. They stress that the turnout of young people on these cigarettes, based on that this price makes it accessible to the addicts of the unemployed and wage earners and young people who suffer bad conditions such as loss of family dependents. The price per gram of Iranian powder “crystals US” $ 13.
These observers point out that Iraqi security and intelligence forces can not continue as required to curb the spread of the phenomenon of addiction and trying to coordinate with the border forces to prevent the smuggling of narcotic substances into Iraqi territory. According to the latest statistics of the Supreme National Commission for Drug Control, there are more than 7,000 state of addiction in Basra, including cases of addiction to sleeping pills. They say that the consumption is doubling year after year, targeting mainly slum areas inhabited by the poor and under the control of militias popular crowd. They see that location of Basra province adjacent to the countries of consumers and producers make the crisis deepens, in the absence of real treatments from the central authority. In Basra today no one smuggles oil. Iranian crystals is the new oil, according to the followers of the Iraqi affairs.
And the social searchers , involved in Iraqi affairs are consistent that Iraq remained a conduit for the drug trade for many decades, and did not hear about the Iraqis that they are injecting drugs or addicted to it , and continued to believe that the winery is better than hashish too much for very reasonable reason, that the winery gives them a kind of courage and heroism, strength, generosity and good self, while hashish disappoint the owner and make him desperate, defeated, spiritless powers.
the spread of the phenomenon of drug smuggling in Iraq after 2003, due to the administrative and financial corruption that affects the Iraqi state institutions, including the security services, in addition to a status similar to the insecurity taking place in the central and southern parts of Iraq due to Iraq’s need for most individuals of security agencies in those areas to fighting al Daesh after the events of Mosul in June 2014. in addition to the influence of the Iranian regime on the joints of the system of government in Iraq, as available information suggests that drug smuggling «orderly» into Iraq began with the Iranian interference through the militias and drug cartels and organized crime under the auspices of Iran’s international intelligence agency and intelligence of the IRGC and the Qods Force, led by Qassem Soleimani oversee the drug smuggling operations in Iraq, including the Kurdistan region, and from Iraq to the Gulf states, as the former governor of Diyala Omar Humairi in one press interviews confirms , “more than 90 per cent of drugs and hashish entering the Diyala province from Iran across the extended vast border with Iraq and that the flow of those toxic materials represents a conspiracy intended to create a scourge threatening the social system and increase the burden of the security landscape in Iraq and the province, “and said that« this serious subject had been raised earlier interest in Diyala province management and security services which, and arrested on a number of gangs who enter the massive amounts of narcotic substances such as grain and hashish and others and transported to all Iraqi provinces, and the strange thing is that the activity of these organized gangs has been increased significantly in the recent period, causing the spread of the phenomenon of addiction among young people and one study carried out by health and regulatory teams stressed that the spread of drugs among young people between the ages of 15 and 30 years in the province and the rest of the provinces of Iraq. ”
Humairi added «with certainty that there is a political cover for those gangs that transport narcotics and hashish of these enormous quantities to Iraq, and that what is happening is a conspiracy meant to create a scourge threatening the social system and increase the burden of the security landscape as the addiction and a way to create criminals to cause damage to the public interest in trends different, while in contrast, we are seeing acquiescence by the security apparatus (anti-crime directorate) in this matter, but the Directorate seem absent from what is happening from the sale, purchase and promotion of these drugs within the province that are being sold openly and before the eyes of the people
In this regard, also recent reports of the Office of Drug Control of the United Nations indicated and confirmed that there is a two main lanes of entering of drugs into Iraq, which turned to the export store used by drug mafia , taking advantage of the wide gaps in the open and unguarded borders, Iranian and Afghan gangs use a corridor across the eastern border that bind Iraq, with Iran, in addition to that there are sea lanes located on the Arabian Gulf, which connects the Gulf with each … reports indicated that Iraq is no longer a transit station for drugs, but turned into a distribution and smuggling area, criticizing a government decision issued on August 10 2006 “to release 442 criminals convicted of drug traffickers and Iranians detained in Iraqi prisons,” the explicit indication of the strength of Iranian influence in Iraq and governed the security and judicial decision . Most of the drug dealers in East Asia have been directing their commodities toward Iraq, specifically Basra, and then shipped to places that were intended in this area and to confirm that the drug phenomenon has become a scary phenomenon a noting the UNICEF report warned that the problem of drug addiction is becoming more of a phenomenon amongst Iraqi children as pointed out that the number of drug addicts among children up to 10% … in addition to the cases of addiction has increased by 50% after Iraq was before 2003 free of these deadly toxins as a result of the force of law and the rigor and adherence to its tribal and religious customs and traditions.
If Iran was the source of drug supply to Iraq and the Gulf states, those who are doing to facilitate the smuggling operations are also responsible for the demolition of the structure of these communities regardless of the motives that are said to be most rapid gain and wealth. Press reports may remain insufficient to draw a semi-complete picture of the operations and the promotion of drugs and targets that countries or entities seeking where they have other motives different from the motives of traffickers and promoters of smuggling, and those as a matter of fact are tools of implementing or facilitating the task of those states or parties , intentionally or without intention . To counter this strange phenomenon for Iraqi society requires first to control the borders with neighboring countries, particularly Iran. Second, activation of the law that was buried in Iraq, particularly in Basra as a result of conflicts between political parties and armed militias . Third: the necessity of activating the role of the community and the activation of the religious aspect and the family, the school and the university in the awareness of the most important contributing factors in addressing this dangerous phenomenon.
In summary it can be said the multiplicity of forms of the Iranian threat to Iraq, which has a long border with Iran. Besides tightening the Iranian regime’s influence in Iraq, working through a broad plan supervised by the IRGC and the Qods Force leaders of Iran, Ettela’at (intelligence ) years ago to pump large amounts of narcotic substances in Iraq in general and the provinces of the south, particularly Basra and spread it among young people in different ways. As the Iranian regime has intensified its attempts to inject these toxins secretly and openly into Iraq to strike the Iraqi society and destroy the Iraqi human being and this is what is sought by the Iranian regime.
Rawabet Center for Research and Strategic Studies