“The tribes then interfere and force us to release the smugglers. Police are harassed and threatened by both the drug traffickers and the tribes. And we are afraid we might be killed. Recently one of the members of this task force was targeted by a car bomb right outside his home. It was a message telling him not to go after the drug smugglers,” he suggests.
Iraq is not only a thoroughfare for drugs, it has also become a marketplace. The Maysan police say that there has been a steady increase in drug use, and drug addicts, among local young people since 2008.
“An increasing number of young people are becoming addicted,” confirms Bassam al-Saadi, who heads a local drug education campaign in Maysan. “It’s a phenomenon that is widespread in Maysan society.”
And it doesn’t seem like a trend that is going to be curtailed any time soon. NIQASH was present at a police interrogation of one man arrested on suspicion of drug smuggling: Karim Mohammed was caught carrying three kilograms of hashish and more than 300 pills.
But Mohammed didn’t seem to care about being caught red handed – he was proud of his work and said he would continue to smuggle drugs because of the big profits he could make.
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