Paris (AFP) - The seizure of a large amount of performance-enhancing drugs in a raid by Yemeni law enforcement agents is “a landmark moment”, the head of investigations for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has told AFP.

Gunter Younger said the operation, which netted 447kg of both narcotics and performance-enhancing substances, mainly amphetamines, showed authorities were increasingly tracking the cross-border trade of prohibited substances.

The raid – one of several carried out including at sea – sends “a clear signal to criminal networks that the landscape is shifting, that trafficking of performance-enhancing drugs is now on the radar of the authorities”, Younger said.

WADA and the Yemeni authorities believe Syrian and Iranian drugmakers have switched their operations to Yemen since the fall of the Assad regime in Syria in December last year.

They believe the drugmakers are exploiting the war and economic crisis in Yemen and claim the drugs provide a source of income for the Iranian-backed Huthi rebel group in the country.

Major Murad al-Radwany, Interpol’s Yemen-based internal security coordinator, expressed satisfaction his colleagues had helped to dismantle “the first factory to be set up in Yemen and equipped with the latest modern devices”.

“It was controlled and dismantled before it began operations and exporting drugs and stimulants abroad, and the experts were arrested,” he told AFP.

“At the same time, they were preparing to open a new factory in other cities” to “export drugs and stimulants to neighbouring countries”, he said.

Al-Radwany said both Syrian and Iranian “experts” had been arrested.

“We are concerned about the spread of such factories in Yemen and the exploitation of the situation our country is going through, whether economic conditions or due to wars,” he said.

“Iran is the one that provided the experts with financial support and modern equipment, and investigations have proven this, as well as the experts’ confessions.”

Al-Radwany, who did not participate directly in the raids but monitored intelligence and coordinated with the security agencies, said: “The Huthis consider it a source of income, facilitating smuggling to neighbouring countries.

“Iran also benefits from this, and its goal is to export drugs and stimulants to Arab countries and destabilise security and stability in Yemen and neighbouring countries.”

An Iranian foreign ministry official said the claims were “unfounded”.

“This is simply absurd and we firmly reject it,” the official told AFP. “Iran’s sacrifices in countering organised crime and drug-trafficking are world renowned and clear to all.”

- ‘Swing the pendulum’ -

The raid followed a workshop in Saudi Arabia which was part of WADA’s Global Anti-Doping Intelligence and Investigation Network, or GAIIN for short.

Younger said GAIIN had “helped reframe doping as not just a problem for sports, but a wider societal issue”.

He said the trade in performance-enhancing drugs had “now drawn the attention of transnational crime groups”.

“These gangs are using established criminal mechanisms to take advantage of the profitability of these products.”

Younger, a former head of the Bavarian state police cybercrime division, said police forces globally were allocating more resources to the problem.

“This is a huge win for the protection of clean sport and ultimately for public health,” he said.

Al-Radwany called for more international bodies to support the fight, but he maintained that despite the risks, his agents would pursue the drug smugglers.

“We and our families face danger from these gangs and smugglers, yet we continue to pursue them.”

Younger is unstinting in his praise of the courage of Al-Radwany and his team.

“They are not just removing these potentially dangerous substances from circulation, they are also confronting threats to their own safety at the hands of ruthless criminal gangs,” he said.

“Every bust, each network or lab dismantled, each seizure made and each criminal convicted helps to swing the pendulum back in our favour.”