Kurdistan thwarts attempt to smuggle drugs hidden in truck parts to Canada
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region’s Anti-Narcotics Directorate in Erbil announced the seizure of eight kilograms of illegal drugs and the arrest of individuals attempting to smuggle it to Canada hidden in parts of a construction vehicle.
“Five kilograms of the drug opium (Taryak) and three kilograms of ketamine were confiscated as drug traffickers were attempting to send it to Canada by hiding it inside shafts and other parts of an excavator truck,” a statement from the directorate read.
“The culprits were attempting to transfer the parts along with the drugs hidden inside through an international transportation company from Erbil,” the statement added, mentioning that two Iranian suspects were arrested in the process of tracking down the drug traffickers. It was not specified if there are any additional suspects.
On Saturday, Kurdistan Region border security announced the arrest of five individuals suspected of narcotics trafficking after the seizure of 30 kilograms of heroin in Duhok province.
Read More: Kurdistan Region confiscates 30 kg of heroin, arrests five
The head of the Ibrahim Khalil border crossing on the border of Turkey told Kurdistan 24, “On Thursday night after receiving intelligence and conducting further investigations, we successfully seized 30 kilograms of heroin in Duhok’s city center.” He said that his office deployed three teams to arrest the suspects after learning that “the traffickers were handing out the drug at one location, receiving the money at another, and testing the drug and giving out samples at a third location.”
The Kurdistan Region’s Anti-Narcotics Directorate revealed in late December 2019 that it had confiscated 230 kilograms of various narcotics in 2019 and had also seized over 9,215 of what they called opium pills. Furthermore, they had arrested 1,702 individuals that were been charged with the trafficking or possession of various illegal drugs.
Read More: Kurdistan Region arrested over 1,700 for drug-related crimes in 2019
The sale and consumption of any non-prescription narcotics are strictly forbidden in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.
Kurdish and Iraqi authorities often intercept shipments of drugs passing through Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, mainly in the provinces of Basra, Diyala, Erbil, and Sulaimani, most commonly in towns and villages near the often-porous and mountainous borders of Iran and Turkey. Most are smuggled into the country from Iran and are smuggled to Turkey, Syria, and ultimately Europe and North America.
Local activists and authorities have also warned of the rise in drug consumption and trafficking within the country itself, but there are no official statistics on the number of people arrested on drug-related charges, nor are there any statistics on the total number of users in Iraq or Kurdistan in general.
Editing by John J. Catherine