The recent conflict and confrontations that broke out earlier this month between elements of the pro-Iran Houthi militia led by Abdul-Malik al-Houthi and elements loyal to Muhammad Abdul-Azim al-Houthi in the Majaz district of Saada province have revealed the size of the drug trade, where the Houthi militia has relied on it to fund its war against the Yemeni people.

The sources pointed out that the elements of the leader of the rebellion attacked "Aal-Qumadi" with various types of weapons, including tanks and artillery, and blew up a number of houses belonging to loyalists of the rival militia leader Muhammad Abdul-Azim al-Houthi, and that the clashes resulted in the death and injury of dozens of the two parties. It is worty to mention that the incident was because of a conflict on the ownership of a huge shipment of drugs.

Sources in the province of Saada confirmed that the leader of the coup militia had ordered to send an armed campaign of its elements after gunmen loyal to Abdel-Azim control on a huge shipment of drugs that the group allowed to smuggle them in order to be smuggled to the neighboring countries.

A number of senior leaders of the Houthi coup militia rely on drug trafficking to save millions of dollars a year. The drug trade is an experience that has been cloned from Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Houthis have benefited from the expertise presented by the Iranian party, which is present in Yemen as training and explosives experts, as well as drug traffickers.

This was confirmed by the spokesman of the Arab coalition in Yemen, Colonel Turki al-Maliki last month, where he said that the Houthi militias cooperate with Hezbollah militants in the drug trade, while the magazine of al-Minbar al-Yemeni revealed that the hashish trading has become prosperous in the areas and provinces controlled by the Houthis.

Accumulated experiences

The recent conflict in Sa'ada was not a new revelation in the Houthi militia's dependence on the drug trade to finance its war and continuation of its coup against the state in Yemen. In recent years, Yemeni army forces have foiled large quantities of drugs and hashish in several governorates, especially Marib, al-Jawf and Hajjah. This conflict revealed a plan for the Iranian Houthi militias to smuggle those quantities of drugs into their areas of control and then to neighboring countries through smuggling networks.

In addition to the aborted smuggling operations, army forces found large amounts of hashish in a building in the town of Midi in the province of Hajjah in northwestern Yemen after being freed from militias. This confirms that the leaders of these militias to give drugs to their fighters as well. The army destroyed the amount of hashish by burning it in the presence of representatives of the intelligence of the fifth military region, a member of the district prosecutor and representatives of the Joint Operations Center.

In 2016, the security of Marib province seized a 332 kg of Huti drug. The shipment was coming from the province of Hadramout, where the deputy director of security of the province of Marib, Brigadier General Abdu al-Sayaghi, said that the quantity was hidden in a locomotive carried with cement, coming from the province of Hadramout and heading to Saada.

During the years 2015 to 2018, the army and security forces foiled several smuggling of hashish and narcotics belonging to the militias of the Houthi coup were revealed at that time to public opinion, and was reported and documented by the media.

All of these operations were not new to this group, whose leaders began their activity in the drug trade. Dozens of operations were discovered during the last Saada wars between 2004 and 2010. The Iranian-backed group seeks to damage Yemeni and Gulf communities by operating the various border lines between Yemen and Saudi Arabia through the governorates of Hajjah, Sa'ada and al-Jawf.

The flourishing of trade death

The pursuit of the Houthi militias, since its first wars in Saada province, to destroy the country in order to carry out Iran's regional plans to overthrow the state, destroy its military and civilian institutions and plunder wealth in systematic practices to destroy the homeland is no longer hidden. However, their access to destructive acts that cause great damage to society has sounded the alarm in Yemen and neighboring countries targeted by this banned trade. After monopolizing food and fuel on the black market to gain financial income for rebel militias, drug trafficking and cannabis became another source of revenue and a means of destroying Yemeni society.

Observers say that drugs smuggled by Iran come at the first rank of the sources of funding for the Houthi militia, which is making millions of dollars in Yemen. This trade transferred the leaders of the Huthi militias to the vast and rapid wealth at the expense of the economy of Yemen, which destroyed it, and led the Yemeni people to a confirmed famine.

Many press reports talked about the hashish and narcotics trade that flourished in the era of the Houthi coup, which flowed under the direct supervision of Houthi leaders. In contrast, smuggling and marketing increased, and the number of drug user increased accordingly.

Detainees released from the Houthi militia prisons have revealed that leaders of the group have jailed one of its own cells specializing in drug trafficking for militias because of a dispute over the sharing of very large profits. Members of this cell shared the money among them, while the leadership of the group insisted on handing over all proceeds of this trade.

The released detainees confirmed that they had seen members of the Houthi drug trade cell being held in Sana'a, who had large quantities of narcotics and large sums of money they were spending lavishly. And that these detainees were released a few days later through a settlement with the Houthi leadership and returned to their areas in Saada.