Indian authorities have stepped up scrutiny of drugmakers in recent months after cough syrups made in the country were linked to deaths of at least 95 children overseas.

Afghanistan is the world’s biggest illicit opiate supplier, but since taking power, the Islamist Taliban have said they plan to ban the drug trade, without giving details on how.

Two people had been arrested in connection with the haul and investigations were ongoing, an official in Gujarat said, declining to be named as he was not authorised to speak publicly.

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), India’s top anti-smuggling agency, seized two containers at western Gujarat’s Mundra Port on Sept. 15 after receiving intelligence they contained narcotics, the official said.

The containers had been imported by a firm in the southern coastal city of Vijayawada, the official added.

“Investigation conducted so far has also revealed the involvement of Afghan nationals, who are under investigation.”

DRI officials declined to comment.

The narcotics were headed to Delhi and the two arrested people had sought an import-export licence based on a house address in Vijayawada, police in Vijayawada said in a statement on Monday.

The containers had been declared as containing semi-processed talc stones from Afghanistan and had been shipped from Bandar Abbas Port in Iran to Gujarat Mundra port, the Gujarat official said, adding that forensic tests confirmed the presence of heroin.

More than 2,988 kg of heroin was recovered in one of India’s biggest such hauls to date.

Most educated people, who have worked hard for years, studied and gained experience to have a better life, run away from the country to escape from this big prison.

It seems that the migration of Iran’s educated and professionals a phenomenon popularly known as “brain drain” abroad, is becoming more intense every year. According to studies conducted in 2019, Iran ranked the second-largest brain drain in the world with the migration of nearly 180,000 educated professionals.

With the deteriorating situation in Iran in the last two years, the complete takeover of government organs by Khamenei’s faction and the increase in public dissatisfaction, this statistic has certainly increased, especially because of the Corona outbreak and the regime’s inability to deal with the pandemic that has so far killed more than 408,000 people. 

Despite such a situation, the Iranian regime does not even care for the country’s medical staff, which is currently most needed. Iran’s medical staff are not even paid enough or on time, which has led to a sharp increase in the migration of nurses.

According to reliable sources approximately 500 nurses migrate to other countries every month. Meanwhile, training a nursing expert costs more than one billion tomans (around $35000).

Basically, brain drain in Iran takes place for three reasons: economic, social, or political.

At the present, all these parameters go hand in hand in Iran. They have caused dissatisfaction among most Iranians so that according to research, 30% of the Iranian population tends to emigrate abroad.

On the one hand, this dissatisfaction can be seen in economic statistics and figures. For example, 80% of people have gone below the poverty line. The middle class has almost vanished, and essential food items such as meat and fruit are off the table for millions of people.

News of strikes by workers and employees who have not been paid for several months can be seen almost daily in the media and has become commonplace. The youth unemployment rate has reached one-third of their population, and there are now plenty of university graduates working as taxi drivers or transporting people by their private car in cities to earn some money.

In Kurdistan province, there are many such educated people who carry smuggled goods on their backs (called Koolbar) between Iran and Iraq, and every month the news of a number of them being killed by border guards is published in the media.

The situation is so bad that nearly a third of the metropolitan population, who can no longer afford to pay the heavy rents within cities, are driven to the outskirts of the cities and live in very poor conditions in shanty towns that lack the minimum living standards such as piped water and electricity, a proper bathroom, etc.

Furthermore, widespread and institutionalized corruption in the government has led to unbelievable class divides between the regime’s officials and affiliates and ordinary people.

It has been revealed that regime’s officials and affiliates enjoy special privileges to access lower rate foreign currency, which is about one-seventh of the market rate. They sell it in the free market at a much higher price and pocket the gains. That is why Iran is ranked to have the most number of millionaires in the Middle East while ordinary people are in need of minimum provisions for their families.

This situation has caused many young people with no welfare to turn to drugs and become addicted. Cases that were very rare before the 1979 revolution have now become almost commonplace. University students and even high school boys and girls have become addicted to drugs and after a while, quit their education path and turn into street vagabonds and living in dirty street corners and even cemeteries, a phenomenon called cardboard sleepers.

According to the regime’s own published statistics, there are currently 4.4 million addicts in Iran which is much lower than the actual number. The same statistics state the number of addicts in the country has doubled in the last 10 years.

Drug distribution centers are, in principle, indirectly connected to Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the regime’s officials and operate their distribution networks with no fear of arrest and accountability. To cover up its own involvement in such a lucrative operation, every now and then, several addicts and drug dealers are arrested and even executed. But the growing number of addicts clearly shows that drug distribution networks are immune. In fact, obtaining drugs is now cheaper and easier than obtaining some food items.

The severe repression imposed by the regime’s repressive apparatus and lack of freedom of expression has prevailed in Iran. Any kind of opposition faces the threat of arrest, imprisonment, physical and psychological torture, and even execution.

During the November 2019 uprising, in which people staged a nationwide protest over the tripling of gasoline prices, security forces and IRGC fired on people at Khamenei’s behest, killing 1,500 people in the streets without fear of repercussions, and arrested 12,000 protesters, whom some of them were later executed and some are still in prison.

Considering the above, it is natural that most educated people, who have worked hard for years, studied and gained experience to have a better life, faced with such conditions, run away from the country to escape from this big prison. But since it is not possible for all these people to emigrate and not all people want to leave Iran, many are looking to change the situation in Iran.

They expressed their opposition to the Khamenei regime in the recent sham presidential election with widespread boycotts. They also express their desire for regime change in nationwide protests and uprisings that are constantly taking place in different cities and provinces. Their chants are directly pointed at the heads of government, especially Ali Khamenei, who is responsible for the whole situation.

At present, Khamenei, with the help of his repressive police force and IRGC has succeeded in cracking down on these protests. However, according to politicians and sociologists familiar with the situation in Iran, this situation cannot continue for long. This resonates with what some of the Iranian officials are saying. The Iranian society is like a ticking bomb that is fast approaching its explosion stage, or according to Ahmadinejad, the former president of the same regime, a flood is on its way that will take everyone away soon.

Cyrus Yaqubi is a Research Analyst and Iranian Foreign Affairs Commentator investigating the social issues and economy of the Middle East countries in general and Iran in particular.

Hezbollah’s established and managed prostitution networks in a number of areas in which it operates in Lebanon and beyond…

Iran-backed Hezbollah’s criminal activities put the likes of El Chapo, Al Capone and Shigeharu Shirai to shame. Iran’s favorite militia is one of the most dangerous criminal organizations ever.

To understand why and how Hezbollah became such a huge player in the drug trade leads us to trip down memory lane to take a historical view of Lebanon.

Businessmen from Lebanon have been successful merchants for thousands of years. Due to poor financial conditions many of the Lebanese migrated to Latin America, they took control of many of the businesses that operated in the free trade zones in the Western Hemisphere.

For many decades, the free trade zones of Colon, the Tri-Border-Area (the region where the borders of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil meet), Maicao in Colombia, and many other strategic zones have been dominated by businessmen of Lebanese descent.

Lebanese Muslims are predominately from Shiite communities whose religious and educational structures are controlled by Hezbollah.

Hezbollah often leverages loyalty by soliciting funds and the use of businesses to facilitate Hezbollah activities.

So, when the Colombian cartels developed their trafficking of massive quantities of drugs to Europe, it was no surprise that they began their movement of illicit drug shipments from Venezuela.

They did that because, for many decades, especially while Venezuela was led by the Chavez and Maduro administrations, Venezuela has been closely aligned both ideologically and economically with nations in the Middle East and Africa that are heavily influenced by the Iranian politics.

The heavy trade and ideological ties of Venezuela with Iran influenced countries provided the cartels with the best cover for trade based smuggling activities drugs out of Latin America and money back to Latin America.

Hezbollah loyalists stationed in French speaking countries of West Africa built and managed the major transshipment point for the cartels and their gateway to the Middle East and Europe.

In October 2008, a joint operation by American and Colombian investigators dismantled an international cocaine smuggling and money laundering ring that funneled portions of its profits to finance Hezbollah.

Unfortunately the Obama administration pulled the plug on the operation as part of the United States was aiming to secure the JCPOA Iran nuclear deal.

Hezbollah also controls the drug manufacturing in Lebanon the Middle East’s leading producer of illicit drugs since 1970s and 1980s, with cultivation taking place mostly in the northern Bekaa Valley, according to United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) figures.

In an interview for Al-Jadeed TV, notorious Lebanese drug dealer Nouh Zeitar tells about his business and his loyalty toward Hezbollah. Speaking about his relations with Hezbollah, Zaiter said proudly that they are “the shield of the resistance…the one who protect Hezbollah, and the people who are armed most by (our connection) with Hezbollah”.

Nouh Zaiter also known as the drug king of Lebanon is a loyal servant of the Resistance and Hassan Nasrallah.

Hezbollah’s established and managed prostitution networks in a number of areas in which it operates in Lebanon and beyond, including what the Lebanese Almodon newspaper mentioned of a brothel run by Hezbollah near the headquarters of the security committee in Baalbek.

The prostitution helped the militias maintain their recruiting efforts also ease the pressure on their ally Asad. Many Syrians recruited by regime following 2011 outbreak of civil war have not had their salaries paid by Asad and resulted to human trafficking and drug dealing.

The Syrian population, which is largely Sunni Muslim, has been forced to accept the Syrian forces and Hezbollah militia’s monopoly on local services, as the Syrian regime continues to turn a blind eye to violence, drug trafficking, and forced prostitution.

Also in Lebanon in Hezbollah controlled areas, Syrian women and minors were forced into sexual slavery.

A dark and grim reality of the terrorist organization that claims to be virtuous and religious, the reality exposes the ugly face of this Islamist cult.

Khaled Homoud Alshareef holds PhD in Business and he earned Masters in Philosophy. He regularly tweets under @0khalodi0.

According to a 2016 survey by the United Nations, there were roughly 5000 new infections between the years 2010 and 2016, adding up to the total of 66 thousand people living with HIV. However, some estimates claim that there may be over 100 thousand Iranians suffering from HIV, highlighting significant discrepancies between official statistics and reality.

The AIDS epidemic in Iran has a significant drug-related dimension. Being part of the Golden Crescent, a region spanning Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan with prominent illicit opium production, Iran has served as a pathway for drug traffickers in the shipping of narcotics from Afghanistan to Europe.

While the Iranian government does not treat drug trafficking lightly, the illegal drug trade has fueled the country’s growing problems with drug addiction.

According to a survey carried out by the Iranian Drug Control Organization, there are about 2.8 million Iranians who regularly use narcotics. Out of those, roughly 67 percent take heroin as their primary drug.

The widespread availability of heroin and other opiates, which are often taken intravenously, has served as an important vector spreading AIDS/HIV among drug addicts, with UN statistics claiming that 9.3 percent of Iranian drug addicts currently have HIV.

While there have been efforts undertaken by the government to promote the use of clean needles and other practices targeting the spread of AIDS/HIV among drug users, the country’s policy against addicts has sometimes been called a “vicious cycle”.

According to Mohammad Bakhshandeh, the chief of the Drug Police of Greater Tehran, the problem is largely caused by ineffective policies which treat drug addicts as criminals, rather than victims of addiction.

“If we have accepted the fact that addicts are not criminals and consider them as sick individuals, we should also accept that it is the duty of municipal and health departments to look after them, not the police’s,” Bakhshandeh said. In turn, HIV has entered Iranian prisons, with roughly 1 percent of Iran’s prisoners now suffering from HIV.

However, more than ever before, there has been a steady increase in HIV transmission rates through unprotected sexual intercourse, rather than intravenous drug use. This is not limited only to Iranian sex workers, where up to 2 percent of all sex workers suffer from HIV, but to the younger generation in general.

Indeed, whereas about 70 percent of sex workers suffering from HIV know their status, only 41 of the general population suffering from HIV are aware of their condition. Similarly, the country’s treatment services have also delivered lackluster results, with only 13 percent of HIV-positive individual having suppressed viral loads as part of treatment.

This has been particularly problematic for the younger generation. According to Parvin Afsar Kazerouni, the head of the Health Ministry’s AIDS department, more than 50 percent of HIV patients in Iran are between 21 and 35.

Although the government continues to blame illegal drug use as the chief source of HIV transmission, unprotected sexual intercourse is becoming a significant factor.

This can be partly explained through the lack of sexual education program offered to Iran’s youth, with only 18 percent of Iranian youth aged between 15-24 knowing about HIV prevention.

The government’s inability to provide well-rounded sexual education to its young population highlights an equally difficult challenge to the regime’s fundamentalist character.

While drug addiction and prostitution continue to be deemed as “social problems”, the ostracized nature of HIV-positive individuals in the general public presents an immensely problematic issue, which effectively prevents the possibility to educate individuals on HIV and living with an HIV-positive status.

In turn, this ineffective policy may lead to the further spread of this disease, particularly to at risk group such as gay men who already retain a highly stigmatized position in Iranian society, as well as to other segments of the Iranian population.

Article first published on RadioFarda

The 28-year-old was questioned by airport officials after “acting suspiciously”, according to local Arabic sources cited by Khaleej Times.

The man’s hand luggage was searched and the capsules were found on top of the rest of his items.

Analyzing the 1,120 capsules, officials found they were Pregabalin, a medication widely known and marketed as “Lyrica” .

The man’s alibi was that the pills were for his brother who resides in Dubai, but officials remained unconvinced and reported the case.

The man is set to be deported back to his country after serving his jail term.