UN warns Iraq becoming major regional drug conduit

BAGHDAD: Iraqi authorities seized record quantities of the potent stimulant captagon last year, at an estimated value of up to $144 million, with the country increasingly a critical drug conduit, a UN report said Monday.

“Iraq has been experiencing a dramatic surge in drug trafficking and consumption for the past five years,” according to a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report.

In 2023 alone, authorities “seized a record-high 24 million captagon tablets”, the equivalent of over 4.1 tonnes, with an estimated “retail value” of between $84 million and $144 million, it said.

“Iraq appears to be at the nexus of regional trafficking routes for both methamphetamine and captagon”, UNODC said, adding that it is “becoming a critical juncture in the complex trafficking dynamics observed in the Near and Middle East region.”