WATCH: Kurdish security confiscates 12kg of heroin near Iranian border
The Kurdish Asayish (Security) for the city of Soran, located in Erbil province announced on Monday the seizure of more than 12kg of illegal drugs that smugglers were attempting to transport through the Kurdistan Region from Iran.
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdish Asayish (Security) for the city of Soran, located in Erbil province, announced on Monday the seizure of more than 12kg of illegal drugs that smugglers were attempting to transport through the Kurdistan Region from Iran.
“Security forces captured over 12kg of heroin in a village near the town of Haji Omaran at the Iranian border,” Kurdistan 24 Correspondent Tayfur Mohammed said during a live broadcast inside the main security office in Soran.
Security officials told Kurdistan 24 that the person who smuggled the drugs into the Kurdistan Region’s is a citizen of Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhilat), and avoided capture by fleeing and leaving the drugs behind.
The shipment is thought to have been intended by smugglers to cross the Kurdistan Region and be transported into a neighboring country such as Turkey, Syria, or Jordan.
“This operation by security forces was expertly executed. We were already aware that a large shipment of drugs was heading to the Kurdistan Region, but we did not strike immediately. We wanted to arrest the individuals who were going to receive the shipment as well,” security officials told Kurdistan 24.
Kurdish Asayish often confiscate drugs and other illicit material transiting through the Kurdistan Region, mainly in Erbil and Sulaimani provinces. Most of it is smuggled to the region through its borders with Iran.
Last week, the Kurdish security confiscated a sizeable shipment of 50kg of heroin from Iran at the region’s border with Turkey as smugglers attempted to move it to Syria.
Editing by John J. Catherine