Drug smuggling in the Arabian Gulf

Drugs are being introduced on a wide scale into GCC countries, and the huge amount makes it impossible to track all shipments. Image: Risk Intelligence

7 February 2023

As the Gulf countries grapple with soaring drug consumption rates, drug smugglers rely on merchant traffic to satisfy demand, with potential consequences for vessel operators.

By Kais Makhlouf, MENA analyst

Amid a spate of large weapon seizures from shows in the Indian Ocean, it is easy to forget that commercial traffic is frequently disrupted by massive drug seizures in the region’s ports. Indeed, gulf nations are experiencing a public drug addiction crisis not unlike the one seen in the US in the 1980’s: volumes of drug seizures in Gulf countries are increasing, and authorities seem swamped by the influx of narcotics. Saudi Arabia seized an estimated 119 million captagon pills in 2021, with figures suggesting that the trend will be increasing for 2022 and 2023. In August of last year, the Kingdom seized 46 million pills hidden in a flour shipment, and multi-million pill seizures have become normal. In one incident, authorities seized a large shipment of captagon pills smuggled into the country in hollowed-out pomegranates from Lebanon. The Saudi authorities enacted a ban on agricultural imports from Lebanon, officially to protest the Lebanese state’s inability at preventing the outflow.

The reality is more complex than drug smugglers exploiting failures in weakened law enforcement structures. The Syrian government is alleged to be involved in drug production and trade, notably through Lebanese ports and with Lebanese partners, giving a political twist to an already difficult equation. The Saudi government is reportedly aware of the link between the Syrian government and narco-traffic, and like most other states, is at a loss for how to address the issue without further complicating already fraught relations with Levantine countries.

Yearly volumes of seized khat, a hallucinogenic plant popular in the region, have ballooned into the thousands of tons. This has been caused by the disintegration of the Yemeni state, in part accelerated by Gulf countries’ own policies, as well as the much higher profitability of khat when compared to food crops. With many in the region out of work, whether due to war or a lack of opportunities, khat has proven to be a lifeline and candidates for smuggling are not hard to find. In this context, the wealthier Gulf populations are the ones who are driving demand.

Whatever the reason, drugs are now being introduced in a significant scale to GCC countries, and the sheer volume makes it difficult to intercept all the shipments. While information is still somewhat limited, it appears that large portions of the smuggling happen through regular commercial traffic, notably through Jeddah port. Shipments of several tens of millions of Captagon pills are frequently found hidden in agricultural or industrial imports. Southern areas, including Jizan port are likewise seeing a surge in Khat smuggling. Khat traffic seems to be more reliant on locally trading craft and overland passage than the Captagon trade, likely as a result of the constraints on consumption of Khat (24h after its picking) and the highly localised and traditional nature of khat consumption. This exposes crews and vessels to significant administrative delays and potential delays, as investigations may immobilise vessels. Furthermore, as shown with Saudi’s “Lebanon-ban”, there have already been diplomatic repercussions on trade and routing opportunities, which ultimately inflict a cost on trade.

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