Yemen: Towards a Houthi-Iranian Project to Cover the Region with Drugs

Arabian Sea Newspaper - Special

Arab Sea - Follow-ups: The Yemeni government revealed today, Monday, a dangerous shift in drug smuggling and manufacturing activities managed by the Houthis with direct support from Iran, confirming the militia's undertaking of an organized project to flood the region with drugs. The Yemeni government indicated that Yemen has become a major destination for regional drug gangs and mafias after receiving heavy blows in Syria. The Director-General of the General Directorate for Drug Control at the Yemeni Ministry of Interior, Brigadier General Abdullah Ahmed Lahmadi, said that the qualitative operation carried out by the Al-Mahra police recently, which led to the seizure of the first integrated factory for the production of Captagon and Shabu in Yemeni territory, constituted "a dangerous turning point in the course of organized crime." Lahmadi added in a statement published by the Security Media Center: "Six Yemeni defendants were arrested with direct links to financing and support networks affiliated with the Houthi terrorist militia, as well as links with foreign networks and experts, some of whom were previously arrested in the governorates of Al-Mahra and Aden." The security official confirmed that intelligence information proved the existence of active drug factories in Houthi-controlled areas, considering this a reflection of the size of the security and humanitarian threats facing Yemen and the region. He explained that the security services have carried out about seven separate qualitative operations in a number of liberated governorates since the beginning of this year, which resulted in important seizures that revealed the expansion of the militia's activity in this field. Lahmadi said: "It is no longer just limited smuggling operations, but an organized project to flood the region with drugs, managed by the Houthi militia with direct support from the Iranian regime, and Yemen has become a major target for turning it into a corridor and factory for these poisons." He concluded his speech by emphasizing the intensification of efforts to confront these risks "with all firmness and responsibility," in cooperation with security and military partners at home, and with the international and regional communities abroad.