SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq -- Just east of here, where the towering peaks of the Zagros mountains mark the border with Iran, a single product dominates the Iraqi exports hauled across the frontier by pack mule and semitrailer. That product is liquor: from well-known Western brands of bourbon and Scotch whisky to types of vodka and gin. Iraqâs booming liquor trade with Iran is a consequence of the divergence between the two countriesâ laws. Alcohol is banned inside the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is perfectly legal in secular Iraq, even if most Iraqis avoid it for religious reasons.
Ummm, if "most" Iraqis avoid alcohol, how come there is such a big liquor industry? These things donât exist in a vacumn.
Not only is liquor legal in Iraq, it is untaxed and cheap. Stores sell liter bottles of Johnny Walker Red Label for just $10. In Iran, the same bottle commands at least five times the price, Iraqis say. "A tractor-trailer load of Jack Daniels is worth a few million dollars on the other side," said Staff Sgt. David Spence-Sales, 34, of the U.S. Armyâs 101st Airborne Division. "Itâs illegal to bring alcohol into Iran but itâs not illegal to ship it out of Iraq." The penalty for sale or consumption of alcohol in Iran is a fine or flogging, or both. Iranian citizens who are Armenian Christians are legally allowed to make their own wine for church services, as well as spirits for their own personal consumption.
"Ahmed, whatâs with the semi full of JD?"
"Big church social this weekend."
Spence-Sales says Iraqi customs officers simply wave the trucks through the main border post near the town of Penjwin, despite knowing the trucks ferry goods prohibited across the line. At least a few of the 100 to 200 trucks that cross into Iran at Penjwin each day are laden with liquor, said Sgt. Louis Gitlin of Wasilla, Alaska. Across the border, truckers pay bribes to see the loads through Iranian customs. "Theyâll pick a small border site and pay the Iranians $20, and theyâll leave it open all day," said Spence-Sales, of Toronto. "Itâs big money over there." "Everybody gets his little piece," Gitlin said.
Including a few mullahs, Iâd wager.
At a staging point for pack trains near the border, a group of smugglers loaded crates of vodka, whiskey and gin onto a dozen pack horses destined for a rocky trail that leads into Iran. The smugglers, all ethnic Kurds said the smuggling is made easier because Kurds, who dominate the population on both sides of the border, are able to move back and forth with ease.
Plus Kurds pack heat. 
|
