Erbil security forces arrest three suspects in possession of banned drugs

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region anti-narcotics directorate on Monday announced the seizure of a sum of banned drugs and the arrest of three suspects for narcotics trafficking in Erbil.

The directorate said in a statement that its forces "seized 52 grams of Jamaican narcotics, 40 grams of crystal, 32 grams of hashish, 15 grams of heroin, and 58 grams of hallucinogenic pills."

It also added that Erbil security forces had arrested three suspects "on charges of trafficking" and referred them to the judiciary.

Lt. Col. Bakhtiar Miran, the Anti-Narcotics Directorate's Media Officer, said during a press conference on Saturday that "the directorate arrested 1,943 people on charges of drug use and trafficking," adding that "863 of them were charged."

The official indicated that the narcotic substances seized in 2021 weighed up to 374 kilograms, 562.5 kilograms of Indian tobacco mixed with hashish, and 47,378 sheets of illicit pills.

Miran also said that 21,985,000 counterfeit Iraqi dinars were seized during 2021.

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. In mid-July, the Asayish (security) confiscated 48.7 kilograms of narcotics near the Iranian border.

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.