Border security foils attempt to smuggle drugs from Kurdistan to Turkey

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Security forces (Asayish) at a border crossing in the Kurdistan Region on Wednesday prevented an attempt to smuggle 27 kilograms of heroin into Turkey.

“The perpetrators were trying to smuggle the drugs into Turkey by hiding it inside the car seats,” said Abdul-Wahab Mohammed, Director of Asayish at the Ibrahim Khalil border crossing that connects the Kurdistan Region's Zakho and the Turkish city of Silopi.

“The drug they were smuggling was heroin, distributed under the driver and the passenger’s seats. It was about 27 kilograms and they surrounded the drugs with spices and covered them with perfume to prevent dogs from detecting them,” he added.

Mohammed explained that they have arrested two of the culprits and an investigation is still ongoing to gather further information and arrest another two suspects who are believed to be involved.

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, specifically in the towns and villages connecting the country with Iran and Turkey.

The Kurdistan Region’s Drug Combatting Directorate in late December 2019 revealed 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.

The sale and consumption of any non-prescription narcotics are strictly forbidden in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq. Most are smuggled into the country through its porous border with Iran, on its way 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 in general.    

Editing by John J. Catherine