Nearly 9,000 drug traffickers and addicts arrested in Iraq in 2023

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – In coordination with the Kurdistan Region, the Iraqi government’s General Directorate of Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Affairs on Sunday published its statistics on its actions against the rapidly expanding drug syndicates in the country.

According to Mohannad Hatim Saleh, the General Directorate of Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Affairs, they have been able to arrest large numbers of drug syndicates and abolish them throughout the country and its autonomous Kurdistan Region.

Their high coordination with the Kurdistan Region allowed them to achieve this result, Saleh added.

He also noted that this cooperation contributed to major operations in July that led to the arrest of several notorious, high-profile drug traffickers.

The Directorate stated that thus far in 2023, 8676 drug traffickers and drug addict suspects have been identified. Of these, 4494 have been punished by relevant courts and 4182 are being investigated.

In addition, nearly 400 kilograms of drugs have been seized thus far in 2023.

The Iraqi Ministry of Interior has previously stated that the origins of the narcotics are connected to international cartels with production factories in countries neighboring Iraq, and that these cartels form smuggling routes through Iraq in order to arrive in the Gulf countries—their main market.

Earlier in April 2023, the KRG's Ministry of Finance and Economy established a Drug and Psychotropic Substances Fund to provide treatments for substance abusers and financial rewards to those who turn in illegal drugs to local authorities.