For years, Iran has marketed itself as a frontline state in the war against the drug lords. Recently the New York Times even described the regime in Tehran as the “West’s stalwart ally in the War on Drugs.” The problem is that while the Iranian regime is fighting drug lords on its eastern borders, much of the drugs it seizes are being sold by the Revolutionary Guards to the same people they are asking for additional funding to fight the drug trade—the Europeans.

Moved by Iran’s catastrophic drug situation, Europeans have assisted Iran over the years with weapons, training, and equipment. In 2004, Austria’s ministry of defense approved the sale of 800 HS50 12.7mm (.50 caliber) Steyr-Mannlicher sniper rifles for Iran’s drug-fighting police units. Even though the United States sanctioned Steyr-Mannlicher, the Austrian defense ministry defended the licensed sale as “unimpeachable.” But, sold to kill drug traffickers, the rifles were reverse-engineered to murder Americans. In February 2007, American troops seized copies of the weapon from Iraqi Shi’a insurgents in Baghdad.