Security member injured in Erbil drug bust: statement

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - One member of the Kurdish security forces sustained injuries in the arrest of a perpetrator involved in an Erbil drug case, according to a statement on Sunday. 

Clashes between security forces and perpetrators during the arrest of a suspect in a drug case led to the injury of one officer when the anti-narcotics directorate of the security forces (Asayish) confiscated three kilograms of hashish from a band of dealers, the general directorate said in a statement published on Facebook. According to the statement, security forces are still searching for others involved. 

Anti-drug teams in the Kurdistan Region have made several arrests in the past, but one of the biggest came in June when security arrested 10 drug dealers in possession of 23,525 kilograms of illegal drugs as well as 37,772 medical pills. 

The Kurdistan Region and Iraq have seen an increase in drug trafficking and use. Numbers have risen in the last two decades, according to Brigadier Raad Ali Hussein, from the Iraqi Ministry of Interior’s narcotics directorate. 

Drugs “are transported to the east, west and north of Iraq from the south,” added Hussein.