OPINION | Beyond the Dhows: Pakistan’s Grey Maritime Economy Driving Narcotics Across the Arabian Sea

by Cmde Ranjit Rai

For years, the image of a “stateless dhow” drifting in the Arabian Sea has served as a convenient explanation for how heroin and methamphetamine move from Pakistan into the Gulf, East Africa, and beyond. The narrative suits Islamabad perfectly: a faceless maritime threat, unlinked to any state machinery, too fluid to control, and too shadowy to trace. But strip away the theatrics, and a different pattern emerges: the narcotics trade is embedded in a broader grey maritime economy along the Makran coast, one that thrives because it intersects with other profitable illicit sectors: fuel smuggling, illegal fishing, and migrant movement.

Narcotics do not move in isolation. They travel through the same beaches, coves, middlemen, and often the same boats that Pakistan’s border forces have ignored for decades. UNODC assessments of the “Southern Route” repeatedly emphasize that multi-purpose dhows leaving the Makran region carry a combination of products, subsidized diesel, banned fishing catch, undocumented workers, and, critically, high-purity heroin and methamphetamine. What appears to be opportunistic improvisation is, in reality, a structured logistics chain: a layered economy where narcotics are simply the most lucrative line item.

Consider the dhow seizures off Oman, the UAE, Kenya, and Tanzania in recent years. Many of these hulls were not the mysterious “stateless boats” Pakistan regularly cites in joint press conferences. They were Pakistani-crewed or Pakistan-linked vessels carrying suspiciously mixed cargo. Fishing licenses appeared forged or recycled. Nets and lines on deck were often unused. Diesel drums were overstocked for the declared route. These are not signs of accidental travelers; they are signatures of a grey economy built for adaptability, a vessel may fish one week, move fuel the next, and carry narcotics the week after.

This is the maritime equivalent of a multi-role informal enterprise, one that thrives because of selective blindness from state agencies. Along the Makran coastline lies a chain of unmonitored landing points from Jiwani to Ormara, all sitting within or adjacent to zones dominated by Pakistan’s security forces. Instead of dismantling smuggling through these coastal pockets, the system appears to tolerate, even integrate the activities of local brokers, transporters, and dhow networks. The result is a stable, predictable flow of narcotics out of Pakistani territory, camouflaged under everyday grey commerce.

The Gulf states, which rarely speak openly, have quietly identified this pattern. Port security advisories from Oman, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia routinely note the recurrence of Pakistan-linked crews in interdicted vessels. East African states, especially Kenya and Tanzania, have documented multi-cargo dhows with heroin hidden beneath layers of fishing gear or diesel drums. These interdictions do not suggest fragmented actors; they indicate a mature, well-organized supply chain.

Pakistan’s preferred narrative, that it too is a victim, ensnared by traffickers operating beyond state control, collapses when confronted with the consistency of the pattern. A victim state does not show decade-long continuity in maritime origin points. A victim state does not see identical dhow profiles recur in seizures across three regions. And a victim state does not maintain overlapping jurisdictions along the very coastline that generates billions in illicit flows.

The grey maritime economy of the Makran coast is not an accident of weak governance. It is anchored in the very structures that Pakistan’s security establishment oversees. The narcotics trade benefits from the shielding effect created by fuel smugglers, illegal fishing syndicates, and migrant brokers, and all these actors operate in areas that remain heavily securitized. This is not the chaos of an ungoverned coastline; it is the functionality of an informal economic system allowed to coexist with formal authority.

For the international community, the implications are clear. Pakistan’s maritime narcotics problem is inseparable from its grey coastal economy. Enforcement cannot succeed unless Pakistan dismantles the networks that profit from fuel, fishing, labor, and drug smuggling simultaneously. Until then, the Arabian Sea will continue to host dhows with multiple identities and one constant truth: their journey begins on the Pakistani shore.

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About Author

Commodore Ranjit B Rai (Retd) is the author of the book 'The Indian Navy @75: Reminiscing the Voyage. He is an RNSC-qualified officer who served as Director Naval Intelligence and Director Naval Operations and writes on maritime matters. He also served as the India Representative of Waterman Steam Ships USA and curated the New Delhi Maritime Museum.