ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s anti-narcotics forces have seized 90 kilograms of hashish and arrested three suspected members of an international drug trafficking network, including a foreign national, in the country’s territorial waters, the Interior Ministry said on Saturday.
Describing it as the first of its kind, the ministry said the operation was carried out in Iraqi territorial waters near a neighboring country.
"The heroes of the anti-narcotics directorate do not stop at the borders of land, and the depths of Iraqi territorial waters are not a safe haven for smugglers," read the statement, adding that the operation was carried out under the supervision of the Central Investigation Court in Rusafa in cooperation with military intelligence and the naval forces.
The latest seizure comes amid stepped-up Iraqi efforts to disrupt drug trafficking networks along the country's land and maritime borders.
The ministry said the operation was launched from Umm Qasr, the country’s main seaport, after several days of surveillance, adding that it resulted in “seizing two boats used in the smuggling operation.”.
On Friday, Iraqi border forces seized five kilograms of crystal methamphetamine that had been concealed among vegetation along the bank of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, according to the Interior Ministry.
A day earlier, border police seized a quantity of drugs concealed inside the cabin of a truck entering Iraq from a neighboring country and arrested its driver, the ministry said.
Also on Thursday, anti-narcotics forces in Kirkuk seized about 20 kilograms of marijuana and dismantled what the ministry described as an international trafficking network in an operation coordinated with authorities in a neighboring country.
The Interior Ministry said recently that Iraqi authorities dismantled 1,538 drug trafficking networks between January 2023 and mid-2026.
The government has also expanded intelligence-sharing and cooperation with regional and international authorities to target cross-border trafficking.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said in a July 2024 report that Iraq serves as a "conduit for the flow of drugs" between southwest Asia, the Arabian Peninsula and Europe.
