Military targets illegal gas sales -- The Washington Times

Military targets illegal gas sales -- The Washington Times:

"On any day in many Iraqi cities, men with plastic containers full of gas line the roads outside gas stations, offering the same product for a much higher price but faster. Motorists pull up, hand a wad of dinars out the window, and wait as the bootlegger fills the tank using a funnel and a hose.

Filling your tank illegally takes only minutes, but costs as much as 8,000 dinars ($5.50), whereas a legal tank of gas might cost half as much, but requires hours of waiting in lines that stretch as long as a half-mile.

Long lines at an inadequate number of gas stations -- a result of decades of underinvestment by dictator Saddam Hussein's government -- have given rise to thousands of illicit gas stands.

In Nineveh and Diyala provinces, U.S. troops are shutting down bootleggers and giving their gas away for free in an effort to control the price of gasoline, protect the livelihoods of gas-station owners and employees, and in the long term, reduce the wait and encourage investment in gas distribution."