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‘Devil Siphon’ stopping Iraqi fuel black market
By Pfc. J. H. French
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 Soldiers of the 1/5th Field Artillery Bn, 1st Infantry Division, stop a truck loaded with propane as a part of Operation Devil Siphon in an effort to end black market fuel sales in the Ar Ramadi area.
Pfc. J. H. French
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AR RAMADI, Iraq (Army News Service, Feb. 6, 2004) – In a country as oil rich as Iraq, fuel is in remarkably short supply. One reason is black marketers buy up the fuel to sell at elevated prices.
“Operation Devil Siphon” is the 1st Infantry Division, 1st Brigade Combat Team’s way of bringing an end to the black market and re-establishing Iraq’s fuel infrastructure.
The operation began Dec. 23 and in a month, nearly 50,000 liters of benzine and almost 300 cylinders of propane were confiscated, according to Capt. Gary M. Belcher, 1st BCT battle captain. There have also been 50 people detained and turned over to the Iraqi Police in association with the illegal fuel.
“This is the kind of operation that has to be done theatre-wide, from one side to the other,” said 1st Lt. Kevin E. Morgan, paladin platoon leader, 1st Battalion, 5th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st BCT. “It is like squeezing a water balloon. When you squeeze one side it pops out the other. There is corruption from top to bottom.”
When dealing with the corrupt fuel infrastructure, there are three main types of black market scams the coalition targets.
The first is the large fuel tankers. They are set up like a gas station with hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel being sold, explained Morgan.
One example is the fuel tanker drivers, he continued. They will go to a gas station and strike a deal with the owner. The driver will then deliver half of what he is supposed to for free and turn around and sell the rest on the black market, thereby making a substantial profit.
“Most of those were shut down early on during the operation,” Morgan said.
The second type of black market fuel is being sold from the side of the road out of 20- to 100-gallon containers, he explained.
Someone will come along with a one- or three-liter can and fill up right there, he continued. Those operations are still fairly common but are steadily declining.
The last type of operation is the propane black market. Canisters of propane are being sold out of the back of bongo trucks for three or four times the amount they would sell for legally, said Morgan.
“For the convenience of having it basically delivered to your door, it is a pretty fair price,” Morgan explained. “It is illegal now, but when the new government takes control in June, it will probably be legalized, because it is beneficial.”
Since beginning Devil Siphon, the amount of fuel being sold on the black market has been reduced 50 to 75 percent, and the number of authorized dealerships has increased, he continued.
Of course, people are still going to attempt to sell fuel on the black market, said Belcher. “We have forced them to re-evaluate whether it is really worth investing their money in, because if they are caught, we give most of their fuel away.”
(Editor’s note: Pfc. J. H. French is a member of the 82nd Airborne Division Public Affairs section.) |
