ISLAMABAD — Iran, Pakistan and other South Asian countries are a fast-rising force in the global methamphetamine market, with drug cartels thriving off the weak governance and law enforcement that have long fueled the region’s heroin trade.
This environment has allowed criminals to tap into the countries’ relatively advanced pharmaceutical industries to get their hands on meth’s two main ingredients: ephedrine and pseudoephedrine. The drug is more valuable than heroin, and some say, more addictive.
Highlighting this scourge are U.N. figures showing that the number of meth labs uncovered in Iran rose from two to 166 in three years, while the supply of precursor chemicals in Pakistan has more than tripled over roughly the same period.
A Supreme Court case in Pakistan involving the prime minister’s son has drawn attention to the problem. The case revolves around two Pakistani pharmaceutical companies that allegedly used political connections to obtain huge amounts of ephedrine and are suspected of diverting it to people in the drug trade who could have used it to make meth worth billions of dollars. The companies have denied any wrongdoing.
Ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are used to make common cold medicine, but either can also be used to manufacture meth easily at home or, in places like Mexico where the trade is most advanced, in labs indistinguishable from those of large pharmaceutical companies.
Long history with drugs
The greater South Asia region has a long history of drug manufacturing. Most of it has involved opium and heroin made from the poppies grown in Afghanistan and smuggled out through Pakistan and Iran.
As governments elsewhere clamp down on the availability of the precursor chemicals, this region is attracting more dealers, said Matt Nice of the Vienna-based International Narcotics Control Board, which enforces U.N. conventions regulating the manufacture and distribution of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine.
They look for a country with weak security and regulation “where you can obtain the chemicals because no one is paying attention, or it has never been a problem before,” he said.
Iranian police dismantled 166 meth labs in 2010, up from just two in 2008, according to the United Nations. Labs have also been dismantled in Sri Lanka and India, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of precursor chemicals.
Worldwide, nearly 10,200 meth labs were seized in 2009, the most recent aggregate data available, according to the U.N. Most were small labs dismantled in the U.S., but the number of labs outside the U.S. has increased in recent years.
Much of the meth produced in Iran is smuggled to East and Southeast Asia, which have some of the highest street prices and are facing an epidemic of addiction.
“Over the past five years, Iran went from a non-issue in the global synthetic drug trade to top 10 in the world in terms of seizures,” said Jeremy Douglas, head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime in Pakistan. “They are also arresting Iranian meth couriers and traffickers throughout East Asia.”
Problems in Pakistan
There are signs Pakistan could be vulnerable to the synthetic drug trade and headed in the same direction as Iran.
Pakistani authorities arrested a Malaysian man last year at the airport in Karachi with a suitcase containing hidden compartments of meth that he admitted was made in the city, Douglas said. Thai officials have also arrested several Pakistanis carrying meth at the airport in Bangkok who flew there from Pakistan, he said.
“There are indications meth is being produced in Pakistan,” Douglas said. “It makes sense because the supply of the precursors is high, readily available and cheap.”
The chemicals are also being smuggled out of Pakistan to Iran and other countries.
Iran reported significant seizures of ephedrine originating from Pakistan and Syria — 648 pounds in 2010 and 827 pounds in 2011, the U.N said. Pakistan also seized 584 pounds of ephedrine in provinces bordering Iran in 2010.
Last year, Pakistan also intercepted 540 pounds of ephedrine at Karachi port, bound for Australia, hidden in spice packages, said the U.N.
About 3 pounds of ephedrine or pseudoephedrine are needed to make 2 pounds of meth. A single gram of meth can fetch more than $1,000 in Japan, according to the U.N.
Nice, the U.N. drug control official, said ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are often smuggled in pill form, and the smugglers mislabel the merchandise as something innocuous, like vitamins, to elude law enforcement in countries with little experience of meth.
“Once they do start seeing this stuff, you have to ask yourself how long has this been going on and how much bigger is it?” Nice said.
The spike in amounts submitted by Pakistan and Iran in recent years has raised suspicions among U.N. officials that significant quantities might be diverted to drug traffickers.
“When you start to see those numbers go up quickly, or wonder why they need so much more than anyone else in the region on a per capita basis, that is when we start to get a little concerned,” Nice said.
Regional problem
There are up to 21 million amphetamine users in East and Southeast Asia, out of a total high-end estimate of 56 million worldwide, according to the U.N. Nearly half of all people seeking drug treatment in East and Southeast Asia in 2009 were methamphetamine users.
