Along the desolate Makran shoreline, wooden dhows launch quietly into the Arabian Sea. Their holds carry a product that has rewritten the narcotics economy from the Gulf to East Africa, a high-purity, ephedra-based crystal methamphetamine.
Over the past decade, Pakistan has become the key maritime gateway for a trade now gripping some of the wealthiest youth populations in the Gulf.
Ephedra and the Rise of Afghan–Pakistani Meth
The roots of this expansion lie in a natural advantage. Across Afghanistan’s highlands, the ephedra shrub grows in abundance. The plant contains ephedrine, the main ingredient needed to produce crystal meth.
Crucially, unlike pharmaceutical precursors, ephedra can be harvested directly from the landscape without passing through regulated markets.
By the mid-2010s, Afghan drug manufacturers had begun using the plant in large quantities. By 2017, production had accelerated at an unprecedented rate.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) data tell the story starkly. Meth seizures in Afghanistan and neighbouring states jumped from 2.5 tonnes in 2017 to nearly 30 tonnes by 2021.
The Taliban’s 2022 opium ban only sharpened this shift. Heroin output fell, but ephedra-fuelled and meth labs continued operating. They need little equipment, can be moved easily, and are almost impossible for enforcement agencies to eradicate.
Pakistan’s Makran Coast: The Quiet Enabler
Most production still occurs in districts such as Bakwa in Afghanistan, but it is Pakistan’s Makran coastline that has turned output into global reach.
The belt from Jiwani to Pasni, with its scattered fishing jetties and minimal surveillance, offers smugglers near-perfect conditions. Dhows can be loaded discreetly and pushed out to sea before any patrol arrives.
International naval forces intercept many of these vessels—enough to make headlines, but nowhere near enough to dent the overall flow.
In October 2024, Pakistani naval units seized over two tonnes of crystal meth valued at more than $970 million. Yet analysts estimate that authorities capture barely 2 per cent of the narcotics leaving the coast.
That gap is unlikely to be a coincidence. UN and FATF assessments have repeatedly flagged serious corruption within Pakistan’s Frontier Corps and coastal enforcement networks.
Traffickers have long paid officials for unhindered passage. Gwadar Port, run by Chinese entities, adds another layer of opacity. Its low cargo volumes and tight access controls create blind spots that smugglers routinely exploit.
How the Meth Moves: Gulf and East African Routes
Once the dhows clear Makran’s waters, they follow routes that have existed for centuries. One stream runs north through the Gulf of Oman to the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Another drops south toward East Africa, supplying markets in Tanzania, Mozambique and Kenya. Both routes are now heavily used for crystal meth shipments.
The UAE accounted for almost half of all meth seized in the Middle East between 2016 and 2020. In August 2024, Abu Dhabi police confiscated 377 kilograms of meth concealed in oil cans. Saudi Arabia, already struggling with widespread drug use has seen meth, or shabu, rapidly gain ground.
East Africa faces similar pressure. In October 2024, Kenyan authorities intercepted more than a tonne of crystal meth aboard a stateless dhow. Tests linked the shipment to Afghan-Pakistani labs, reinforcing what investigators already suspected, that Makran has become the central artery for the meth trade.
A Youth Crisis Across the Gulf
While the meth is produced in Afghanistan and shipped out of Pakistan, the human fallout is most visible in the Gulf states.
In Saudi Arabia, health authorities say most users are between 18 and 30. The drug’s long, intense highs make it attractive to young men facing joblessness, social strain and limited outlets for recreation.
But long-term use comes with a devastating cost, paranoia, violent behaviour, cognitive decline and symptoms resembling severe psychiatric disorders.
Iraq, which sits along a key trafficking corridor, has seen meth-related arrests rise sixfold between 2019 and 2023. Jordanian rehabilitation centres report that more than half their recent admissions test positive for methamphetamine, which has now overtaken captagon in several areas.
What was once an expensive substance used by a narrow slice of society has become widely accessible due to scaled-up Afghan production and Pakistan’s maritime facilitation.
Pakistan’s connection to the methamphetamine economy is not an accident of geography but a pattern shaped by long-standing governance failures and tolerated smuggling networks. The Makran coast now functions as a well-established launchpad for meth shipments reshaping addiction trends across the Gulf and East Africa.
Interceptions by multinational naval forces offer glimpses of the trade’s scale, but they do little to alter the underlying reality as long as ephedra remains freely available in Afghanistan and Pakistani dhows financed by traffickers sail unchallenged into the Arabian Sea, the flow will continue.
The region’s young men and women—particularly in the Gulf—are left to absorb the consequences of a narcotics pipeline that Pakistan has shown little interest in disrupting.
Ashu Mann is an Associate Fellow at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies. He was awarded the Vice Chief of the Army Staff Commendation card on Army Day 2025. He is pursuing a PhD from Amity University, Noida, in Defence and Strategic Studies. His research focuses include the India-China territorial dispute, great power rivalry, and Chinese foreign policy.
