Security forces arrest 10 drug dealers in Erbil province

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Security forces in Erbil province arrested ten drug dealers in possession of thousands of kilograms of drugs this week, the anti-narcotics directorate announced on Tuesday. 

They also found a shipment of drugs destined for the UK at Erbil International Airport. 

Erbil’s anti-narcotics directorate - affiliated to the security forces (Asayish) - said in a statement submitted to Rudaw on Tuesday that they arrested “ten convicts with 23,525 kilograms of illegal drugs as well as 37,772 medical pills.”

The drugs seized include hashish, methadone, and heroin, it added, saying they were found in three different operations, at Erbil International Airport, the Haji Omaran border crossing and Erbil city.

The operations at the airport and border crossing were on Sunday, with the city raid taking place on Tuesday.

Five kilograms of drugs were found at the airport, hidden in carpets and lights destined for the UK, the directorate said. Three people were arrested people with six kilograms of drugs at the Haji Omaran border crossing, linking the Kurdistan Region with Iran. 

Seven “big” drug dealers were arrested in the Erbil city operation.
 
Anti-drug teams in the Kurdistan Region have made several arrests in the past, but the latest is one of the biggest. 

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

“The numbers [of those abusing drugs] are getting dangerously high,” Hussein told Rudaw in November.