UN: Iraq on the brink of becoming a drug transit hub

Iraq risks becoming a major transit point for drugs in Middle East, Given the record number of captagon pills seized in 2023, the agency warned UN.

“Iraq has experienced a spectacular increase in drug trafficking and consumption over the past five years,” indicated a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

In 2023 alone, authorities “seized a record 24 million captagon pills,” equivalent to more than 4.1 tons, with an estimated value of between $84 and $144 million, according to the same source.

“Iraq appears to be at the crossroads of regional methamphetamine and captagon trafficking,” UNODC said, adding that seizures of captagon in Iraq “tripled between 2022 and 2023, and the global amounts seized in 2023 are 34 times higher than in 2019.”

Captagon, an amphetamine derived from a previously legal treatment for narcolepsy and attention disorders, is now part of a thriving trade in several Middle Eastern countries.

Syria, which has become a narco-state, is the main source country, and Saudi Arabia is by far the largest market.

In Iraq, authorities regularly announce major seizures of captagon, much of which crosses the porous 600-kilometre border with war-ravaged Syria.

According to UNODC, 82% of the captagon seized in the region between 2019 and 2023 comes from Syria, followed by Lebanon (17%).

Iraq is also becoming a transit point for methamphetamine produced mainly in Afghanistan, destined for the Gulf and Europe, the report said.

The country of 43 million people is also facing an explosion in drug consumption, which intensifies in times of conflict. Governments in the region have recently stepped up their efforts to crack down on trafficking under pressure from the Gulf States, the main markets for captagon.