ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi security forces have arrested three suspected drug traffickers across the country, including one caught attempting to smuggle narcotics into a prison, the Iraqi National Security Service (INSS) announced on Friday amid an ongoing nationwide crackdown.
“Acting on intelligence received from inside a prison, tactical team detachments in Kirkuk—in coordination with the Security Intelligence Center within the Reform Directorates and following judicial approval—arrested two suspects outside the prison,” the INSS stated, adding that security forces “seized 1.25 kilograms of crystal meth and drug paraphernalia in their possession.”
The INSS added that a separate operation took place in the southernmost Iraqi province of Basra, where “confessions from several detainees led to identifying a drug dealer involved in smuggling narcotics into a prison, where security detachments caught him red-handed.”
Iraq remains both a destination and a key transit route for narcotics. A report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) describes the country as a “conduit” for illicit drug flows connecting Southwest Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Europe, while pointing to a surge in Captagon trafficking from Syria and rising domestic consumption.
To counter the expanding trade, operations led by the General Directorate for Narcotics Affairs have scaled up international coordination, establishing 36 liaison channels with foreign counterparts to bolster intelligence sharing and joint operations.
In late August, the directorate reported that 4,644 individuals had been sentenced for drug-related offenses since the beginning of the year, including 69 death sentences and 267 life terms. Authorities also dismantled 304 local and 54 international trafficking networks, conducted 21 external operations, established six contact points, and issued 43 international arrest warrants.
According to official figures, Iraqi courts handed down 300 death sentences and 1,147 life sentences in drug-related cases over the three years to November 2025. Together, they accounted for more than 62 percent of the 2,318 sentences issued in drug cases during that period.
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