And the smugglers are still making good money. They usually sell their wares for at least six times as much as they cost.
“There are a lot of drug smugglers in this district,” says one resident, Alwan al-Miryani. “They sell hashish, pills and amphetamines. They all travel a long distance with their cargo, driving and walking, sometimes for as long as six hours.”
Local police say it’s a difficult and dangerous task trying to stop this trade. In the Amara district the drug smugglers are often members of the tribes living in the area. The drug trade started to grow in southern Iraq several years ago, during times of increased unrest and lawlessness, and it’s never gone away – now it is becoming the major source of conflict between the tribes in the smuggling areas.
“During the last two months, 30 arrest warrants were issued,” one senior officer in the local police told NIQASH on condition of anonymity. “And many attempts to smuggle drugs were uncovered, including one truck supposedly transporting construction materials that was actually carrying several dozen kilograms of drugs at the Sheeb crossing [between Iraq and Iran].”
However thanks to the drug smugglers’ tribal connections, things are always difficult, the officer said.
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