VIENNA — Iraq is now becoming a major transit point for drug trafficking from Afghanistan to Europe via Iran, it was announced here on Thursday by the UN International Drug Control Organisation.

“Heroine and other opium that are widely grown in Afghanistan are smuggled into Iraq from where it passes through Jordan to markets in eastern and western Europe,” the Chairman of the Organisation, Humaid Gudsi, said during a Press conference. “This was made possible by the internal situation in Iraq where there is total lack of border control, which enables the smugglers to sneak into the country as pilgrims,” Gudsi added.

Meanwhile, the Jordanian government has said that an increasing number of drug smugglers are being arrested on the country’s border with Iraq.

“A large quantity of cannabis has been seized at the (Jordanian-Iraqi) border during the last 12 months,” Gudsi said, adding that other chemical components used in the production of cocaine and heroin had also been seized, in addition to the recent seizure of 325kg of hashish in Basra in southern Iraq. The consignment is said to have entered the country from Iran.

Iraqi Interior Minister Nouri Badran recently admitted that a large quantity of drugs had entered the country from Iran. He said there has been a sharp increase in the rate of drug addiction among Iraqi youth, adding that ‘foreign parties’ were involved.