Drug trafficking in the MENA

Drug trafficking, violence, and politics in Northern Mali

Drug trafficking in northern Mali is fueling unparalleled regional violence and instability. In Mali, smuggling narcotics is not only a way armed groups gain funds, but also a source of conflict in itself. According to the International Crisis Group...

A podcast detailing the drug markets of East and Southern Africa

The African continent plays a critical role in the global illicit drug market. Often forgotten when discussing drug trafficking, organized criminal networks in Africa have established relationships with other criminal organizations around the world....

How drug trafficking undermines West Africa

The rise of drug trafficking is undermining institutions, public health, and development efforts in West Africa. According to the West African Commission on Drugs, civil wars have receded, democracy has gained ground, and economies are growing in...

An eye-opening interactive journey into the global drug trade

POPPY Interactive reveals how drug money destabilizes entire countries, fuels global conflicts, and allows a worldwide illegal economy to grow. Navigating the site involves diving into three major routes—the Northern Route, the Balkan Route, and...

Mapping where the drug captagon is seized worldwide

In the 1960s, Captagon was patented in Germany as a stimulant similar to amphetamines. It was prescribed for a time to address narcolepsy, ADHD, and other conditions. As its addictiveness and psychosis-inducing quality became more apparent, the drug has been banned in many countries. A robust illicit manufacturing of the drug endures in the Middle East, especially in Syria and Lebanon. Track locations where the drug has been seized on this updated map.

Watch the craziest ways cartels traffic drugs

The war on drugs has forced cartels to be increasingly creative when it comes to smuggling drugs. As police develop methods to catch smugglers, drug traffickers come up with new ways to get their products from producer to seller to buyer. This cycle...

An interactive investigation into drugs and migration in San Francisco

This interactive article investigates the connection between the boom in US migration from Honduras and drug dealing in San Francisco. A high concentration of Hondurans are fleeing Siria Valley, where poverty and national murder rates run high...

How the Myanmar coup fueled a rise in illegal drugs

According to the UN, Myanmar remains the world’s second-largest producer of heroin. Inside Myanmar, almost all the drugs come from one place: Shan state in the Golden Triangle region, south of China, where Myanmar meets Thailand and Laos. The...

Why Belgium is now the cocaine capital of Europe

Belgium has become Europe’s cocaine-trafficking capital. Recently, Belgian ports have seen record seizures of cocaine. In 2020, the port of Antwerp accounted for 40% of all cocaine seizures in the EU. And local authorities are struggling with the...

Could water scarcity cause future wars in the Middle East?

The MENA region is facing a looming water crisis that could lead to future conflicts. While water scarcity isn't new in the Middle East, the region is among the most water scarce in the world. Home to only 1% of the world's fresh water...

Organized crime, including money laundering, drains $1.96T from the global economy annually

Overall, financial crime drains $3T from the global economy, with organized crime making up nearly $2T of that total. Drug trafficking is the second-largest drain on the global economy.

The DEA enforces federal drug laws under the Department of Justice

Established in 1973, the Drug Enforcement Administration directs federal efforts to fight illegal drug trafficking, oversee controlled substances, and dismantle large narcotics networks both within the United States and internationally.

CIA factbook on the Middle East

The CIA’s World Factbook provides a comprehensive overview of 19 Middle Eastern nations. A wide range of background information is provided for: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, the Gaza Strip, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon,...

Maritime trade in the Mediterranean accelerated during the late Bronze Age

This map illustrates the vibrant trade networks of the eastern Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age (circa 1500–1200 BCE), highlighting an era of growing interconnectivity among major powers including Egypt, the Hittite Empire, Mesopotamia, and others.

The negative effects of cannabis use

After decades of criminalization, cannabis is a legalized drug in an increasing number of countries around the world. This allows for accurate, robust research on the drug's effects on humans . While weed isn't as harmful as alcohol, regular usage has its negative effects. As strains of the drug become stronger, so does its consequences. Watch this video for a lucid look at the effects of cannabis on its users.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse's resource library

The National Institute on Drug Abuse website is an in-depth and highly prolific resource on addiction science. Explore the vast scope of this website to access comprehensive guides, data visualizations, and educational materials on all facets of addiction and its treatment.

Drugs in space: the pharmacy orbiting the Earth

Researchers are developing pharmaceutical solutions for astronauts, whose bodies may not respond the same way in space as they would on Earth. Similar to how microgravity causes changes to astronaut physiology, the environmental shift enables new...

A 49-year-old American died at an ibogaine clinic in Mexico, underscoring its risks

The man had sought out the drug to help him overcome his substance abuse disorder. Though anecdotal reports indicate potential promise, there's been no large-scale clinical trials on ibogaine's safety and efficacy. The plant is derived from a root bark named iboga and has been used for centuries by indigenous communities in Gabon, but first entered scientific consciousness in 1901 after its alkaloid was isolated from Iboga.

Methadone binds to the same receptors as heroin and other opioids

Methadone is a long-acting opioid agonist that works by binding to the same brain receptors as other opioids (like heroin or morphine), but without producing intense euphoria. It reduces withdrawal symptoms and cravings, helping people stabilize and avoid illicit opioid use.

Critical mineral production may lift impoverished regions out of poverty

Mineral wealth can provide public revenue and economic livelihoods to those in mining regions. However, poor management and lack of oversight can cause human rights abuses, environmental degradation, and significant greenhouse gas emissions.

As oil revenues decline, many Gulf States are investing in professional sports through sovereign wealth funds

Gulf States—including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia—have invested tens of billions of dollars in professional sports, owning high-profile soccer clubs like Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City. Many of these investments have been characterized as an increase in these countries' soft power, or global cultural influence, in Western countries, where the Middle East remains relatively misunderstood.

Ramadan is a major television event in the Middle East

Each year, major networks air special 30-episode dramas timed to the month—one episode per night after iftar. Syrian productions long dominated the format, though that has shifted. The season is the advertising event of the year across the Middle East, rivaling the Super Bowl in commercial intensity.

Antimalarials must be taken before traveling to a malaria-endemic area

Malaria prevention involves avoiding getting bitten by mosquitoes (with bug spray and clothing choices) and taking malaria preventative drugs before, during, and after spending time in an area with malaria risk. The drug must be in the blood before the traveler is exposed to malaria parasites.

Coffee brewing likely originated in Ethiopa and the Arabian Peninsula

A mixture of merchants and colonialism then launched the drink across Europe and the New World. Many European coffee traditions, like the Viennese custom of serving it alongside a small cup of water, are remnants of how coffee has been prepared in the Middle East for centuries.

How crude oil is split across oil markets based on geographic origin

Brent, West Texas Intermediate, and Dubai are the three crude oil classes and differ in terms of typical refinery uses, density, sulfur content, and suitability for financial benchmarking. Brent, which originates in the North Sea, is traders' go-to benchmark, in part, because it is easily shipped and politically stable, and used to price most of the crude sold internationally.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

The US dollar is the most widely circulated currency in the world, and is involved in nearly 90% of global transactions

Watch how deep-sea mining equipment collects and processes polymetallic nodules—metal-rich, potato-shaped rocks—from the ocean floor and creates environmentally damaging plumes of sediments.

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

The 2026 Ebola outbreak is hampered by a lack of vaccine against the species of the virus, heightening the need for rapid tests to aid in disease control.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by over 1.5 million Muslims.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is independent of Iran's regular army and is one of the most powerful and influential military-political organizations in the Middle East.

Poison ivy is in the same family as mangoes, cashews, and pistachios—and they all produce oily urushiol in their raw, unprocessed state—but they are typically prepared in ways to avoid causing human discomfort.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

Read a deep dive on the 'all-purpose healing' peptide BPC-157.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

Animal phobias are likely the most common type of phobias, followed by an extreme fear of heights.

Jimmy Carter signed a 1978 bill that legalized home brewing, a move credited with kick-starting the craft beer industry.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

The term 'algorithm' originated from the Latinized name of al-Khwārizmī, a 9th-century mathematician whose works introduced Arabic numerals and the decimal-based numeral system to Europe and whose treatise 'Al-Jabr' gave algebra its name.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in terms of casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.