The Revolutionary Guards and the International Drug Trade

The Revolutionary Guards are significantly involved in the international drug trade, both directly and through proxies. This involvement provides the organization with access to sources of financing that bypass international sanctions, as well as to sophisticated operational platforms that support its subversive efforts aimed at the West. For Iran’s enemies, and especially to Israel, the link between a global, sophisticated, and determined organization as the Revolutionary Guards and the world of organized crime is a phenomenon that is, in the absence of appropriate attention and response, liable to have significant strategic ramifications. This essay seeks to demonstrate the link between the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and the international drug trade as one development within the growing terrorism-crime spectrum. The Western discussion on security has not given a great deal of attention to this connection as it relates to the Iranian threat, but evidence and developments of recent years invite an in-depth analysis of the phenomenon and its ramifications. This essay suggests that the link between the Revolutionary Guards and the international drug trade contains not only challenges but also opportunities for Western countries and their allies.