analysis
Narco states
Terror and nuclear weapons: How Iran finances itself through the international drug trade
Iran and its proxies are at the forefront of the Middle East conflict. But how do they finance themselves?
© Middle East Images / Imago Images
The crisis in the Middle East threatens to escalate at any time. At the center: Iran and its proxies. The mullahs’ regime finances its terror not only with oil – but also with drugs.
According to reports, the Iranian regime has killed at least 481 people Amnesty International executed him last year for drug-related offenses. The leadership in Tehran is taking ruthless action against drugs – or so it seems. The paradox: According to Western security authorities, the country itself is heavily involved in the international drug trade. Iran depends on the billions in drugs. After all, this is how the mullahs’ regime largely finances its military apparatus – and thus also its aggression against Israel. The result: The Islamic Republic is described by investigators as a so-called “narco-state,” a country whose institutions are permeated by the illegal drug trade.
Senior Iranian officials part of drug trade
Iran has a long history of drug smuggling, as the country borders the world’s largest heroin producer: Afghanistan. The country controlled by the Taliban produces 85 percent of the world’s opium, almost a third of which is smuggled through Iran. The majority of illegal trade to and from Iran passes through official ports and border crossings controlled by the Revolutionary Guard.
Already published in 2009 Wikileaks confidential documents from the US embassy in Azerbaijan. The revelations showed that Iranian security forces are actively collaborating with Afghan smugglers. Interrogations of Iranian smugglers in Azerbaijan also revealed that Iranian security forces are said to be actively involved in the transit and trafficking of drugs and in the operation of heroin laboratories.
Meth is taking over Iranian streets
Last year the reported Global Initiative Against Transnational Crimethat the drug meth is on the rise again in Iran. In 2020, Iranian authorities seized three times as much of the amphetamine as in the previous year. This meth boom can be attributed, among other things, to the discovery of a new plant-based raw material in Afghanistan. The report’s authors warned at the time that trafficking in the deadly drug could be a new source of income for the Revolutionary Guard.
But it’s not just the Iranian regime that depends on the international drug trade; its allies are also apparently deeply involved. One of them is Hezbollah, one of Iran’s proxy groups in Lebanon.
In the mid-2000s, Iran supplied Hezbollah, according to the Washington Post equipment to produce the drug Captagon. The amphetamine is described as improving performance and concentration. Many of the Hamas terrorists Those who attacked Israel on October 7th are said to have used the drug beforehand.
Dem According to the Washington Post report The militia has also been producing Captagon in Syria for several years, in collaboration with the Assad regime. The BBC was able to identify the younger brother of the Syrian president, Maher al-Assad, as an accomplice. He is said to command the Syrian army unit that enables the distribution and production of the drugs. 2023 appreciated that British Foreign Office the turnover of Captagon trading to 57 billion dollars. According to the government in London, 80 percent of the volume is produced in Syria and fuels Assad’s war machine.
The Houthis are also involved in drug smuggling
Another offshoot of the Iranian regime is the Houthis. This terrorist movement in Yemen also finances itself through the production and smuggling of drugs. The Reuters news agency reports, citing an anonymous senior Iranian official, that the Islamic Republic supplies the Houthis with narcotics. They in turn then sold the product in the surrounding Gulf states. According to the British Embassy In Yemen, the state on the Arabian Peninsula has become an important part of the drug smuggling route.
According to that Hudson Institute, a think tank in the US, Iran also provided the Houthis with material to make amphetamines last year. This means that Captagon can now be produced on a large scale in Yemen and smuggled into neighboring countries.
Captagon also found in Europe
The illegal drugs also find their way to Europe and Germany – so the addicts finance terrorist groups without knowing it. It was not until July 2023 that the Dresden Public Prosecutor’s Office Charges against a suspected gang of Iranian drug traffickers. They are said to have smuggled 2,100 kilograms of heroin from Iran to Germany.
But Europe plays an important role not only as a buyer, but also as a stopover, especially in the Captagon trade. According to the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction The drug is often repackaged in Europe to make smuggling easier. The actual destination of the deliveries are countries such as Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
Drug money finances the fight against Israel
The drug trade via Iran is not only a problem for Europe, but actually also for the Islamic Republic itself. Export success or not – the drugs also pose huge problems for Iran itself. According to the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction The dependency rate in Iran was up to 2.8 percent in 2019 – one of the highest in the world. Estimated two to three million of the 81 million Iranians are drug addicts. For comparison: In Germany there are around 160,000.
Ilan Goldenberg is a foreign policy and defense expert. He sees the dependency problem in Iran as a solution to combat the Revolutionary Guard’s drug trafficking. In a report from the think tank ViTTa He explains that the vast majority of Iranians know nothing about the Revolutionary Guard’s involvement in the international drug trade. So education is the solution. But even if it does, those in power have proven this more than once in their dealings with the women’s rights movement in recent years with how brutally harsh the regime handles any form of resistance. It therefore seems rather unlikely that the people can force the Revolutionary Guards to do anything when it comes to drug trafficking.
Currently, narcotics trafficking is not covered by Western sanctions against Iran. Amir Hamidi, US diplomat and terrorism expert, draws a bitter conclusion: drug trafficking is one of the Revolutionary Guards’ main sources of income. As long as the Revolutionary Guards are not stopped in their illegal activities, the drug trade will continue to finance the aggression against Israel.
Further sources: Reuters; Human Rights Watch; Washington Institute; FDD:Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime; Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime 2; Combatting Terrorism Center