Links:

• Meth trafficking across Middle East becoming more advanced, UNODC warns: https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/08/1168142
• the associated report: https://iran.un.org/en/320941-iran%E2%80%99s-frontline-effort-against-industrial-scale-methamphetamine

Authorities in Iran intercepted 3,663 kilogrammes of methamphetamines headed for Europe and the Persian Gulf in the first quarter of 2026, according to the UN’s drugs and crime fighting agency (UNODC).

While international attention has primarily focused on the vast region’s declining opium production, advanced criminal drug trafficking networks have successfully shifted toward manufacturing and exporting synthetic drugs such as methamphetamine, commonly known as meth.