Grenades cost an extra $50 each. Source: Ahmed Rasheed and Ross Colvin, ” Iraqi police selling weapons on black market,” Reuters, February 5, 2007.

The Center for Defense Information (CDI) has reported on the thriving black market that has existed throughout the U.S. occupation. In a December 2006 report, the CDI stated that “weapons originally supplied by the U.S. and its allies to the Iraqi police have been showing up on the streets and on the black market, likely [...]

From the Christian Science Monitor: The recent fight in Basra between Iraqi forces and Shiite militiamen was about more than a government bid to reassert itself in a city where Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army was digging in. It was also about oil – and smuggling.Before the assault [...]

From the AP: The smuggling of stolen antiquities from Iraq’s rich cultural heritage is helping finance Iraqi extremist groups, says the U.S. investigator who led the initial probe into the looting of Baghdad’s National Museum.Marine Reserve Col. Matthew Bogdanos claimed both Sunni insurgents such as al-Qaida in Iraq and Shiite militias are receiving funding from the [...]

The New York Times reported over the weekend that at least one-third of fuel from Iraq’s largest refinery is being diverted to the black market.  The proceeds from the sale are being used to support in insurgency against American troops. From the New York Times: The sea of oil under Iraq is supposed to rebuild the nation, [...]

The Independent (UK) is reporting that opium fields are popping up in areas of Baghdad due to the difficulty in growing traditional crops such as oranges and pomegranates. The cultivation of opium poppies whose product is turned into heroin is spreading rapidly across Iraq as farmers find they can no longer make a living through growing [...]

The Washington Post is reporting that insurgents in Iraq are becoming more interested in profit making than in political ideology. U.S. military commanders say that insurgents across the country are increasingly motivated more by money than ideology and that a growing number of insurgent cells, struggling to pay recruits, are turning to gangster-style racketeering operations. U.S. military [...]

The AFP is reporting that Interpol has focused its sights on human smuggling rings that transport Iraqis to Europe and the United States. International police body Interpol is probing criminal gangs exploiting Iraqis trying to flee to Europe or the US to escape war at home, a senior official said here Tuesday. The agency began to collect data from [...]

Jim Landers of The Dallas Morning News has a column on the bizarre situation concerning gas in Iraq and Iran.  Although both countries as located on oil fields, the ability to get gas to consumers in their own country has proven difficult due to the practice of subsidizing fuel prices. How a country rich in oil [...]

Stars and Stripes reports on US Soldiers targeting black market operations that funnel revenue to the Iraqi insurgency. Organized crime is nothing new in Iraq. Smuggling has long been an intrinsic part of Iraq’s black market economy, most notably under Saddam Hussein. Many of these criminal networks have not gone away, but have simply adapted to [...]