ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi authorities have arrested an international drug trafficker impersonating a war correspondent while trying to smuggle crystal meth into the country, Baghdad’s top security agency reported on Thursday as Iraq ups its crackdown on narcotics networks.
The Iraqi National Security Service (INSS) said it successfully arrested the "drug dealer who was pretending to be a 'war correspondent' as a cover for his criminal activities" and to transport "crystal meth between [Iraqi] provinces and into the capital Baghdad where [the narcotics] were to be distributed to sub-dealers."
The Service added that a cache of narcotics was seized in the individual's possession, along with several forged identity cards he was using to facilitate his travels.
Earlier on Thursday, the INSS said it arrested a suspected drug trafficker in the southern Iraqi province of Dhi Qar, seizing more than 111,000 Captagon pills and a firearm in the court-approved operation.
Meanwhile, anti-narcotics units in another southern province, Diwaniyah, apprehended a suspect in possession of crystal meth. Also in the province, authorities dismantled a four-person network, seizing weapons, drug paraphernalia and cash.
Iraq remains both a destination and a transit route for narcotics, notorious for serving as a "conduit" for drug flow between Southwest Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Europe, as well as Captagon trafficking from Syria and rising domestic consumption, according to a 2024 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime on drug trafficking dynamics across Iraq and the Middle East.
Baghdad’s interior ministry announced in late April that authorities had dismantled more than 1,500 drug trafficking networks since 2023, including several operating across international borders.
Ministry spokesperson Abbas al-Bahadli said at the time that the three-year campaign resulted in 349 death sentences and 1,325 life sentences for convicted traffickers.
According to the ministry, 1,538 networks were dismantled during that period, including 234 transnational groups. Security forces have carried out 61 operations abroad as part of the crackdown.
