ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi and Kurdish anti-narcotic forces on Thursday arrested what has been labeled as “the largest drug-trafficking network” in the Kurdistan Region, also seizing hundreds of kilograms of illegal substances.
“Under the supervision of the first al-Karkh investigation court, an anti-narcotics unit carried out a preemptive security operation in Duhok province in cooperation with Erbil’s anti-narcotics directorate in a high-level security effort, resulting in the arrest of drug dealers of who are extremely dangerous to the society’s security,” read a statement from the Iraqi supreme judicial council.
Over 236 kilograms of captagon and around 36 kilograms of opium were caught in the possession of the suspects.
Iraq’s interior ministry also announced on Thursday that anti-narcotic units in Salahaddin and Anbar had carried out two separate operations in their provinces, seizing approximately 500,000 captagon pills combined.
Captagon is an amphetamine-type stimulant which has been spreading across the Middle East, with Syria as the main supplier and Saudi Arabia the primary consumer.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani has ordered the establishment of rehabilitation centers in all Iraqi provinces, excluding the Kurdistan Region, as part of his cabinet’s commitment to combat growing drug trade and use as seriously as the country fights terrorism.
Around 15,000 people were arrested on drug-related charges in Iraq in 2022 and more than 400 kilograms of narcotics were confiscated, according to the General Directorate of Narcotics Control in Iraq’s Ministry of Interior.
