Baghdad Police Bust Network Selling Stolen Cars With Forged Plates
Federal investigators caught employees of Maysan's vehicle registration complex falsifying plate fee receipts and installing plates outside official premises in violation of regulations
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - Iraq's Federal Integrity Commission announced on Tuesday that two employees at the Maysan Traffic Directorate have been arrested after an investigation revealed they had manipulated 40 vehicle plate fee receipts and installed plates outside the official registration complex in clear violation of instructions and regulations.
The commission said in a statement received by the Iraqi News Agency that a team from the Maysan investigation office traveled to the province's Traffic Directorate to conduct surveillance and gather information about suspected manipulation and waste of public funds within the directorate. The investigation and inquiry work led to the arrest of two employees at the vehicle registration and driving license complex on the grounds of manipulating fee receipts for car plates, construction vehicles, and heavy vehicles, and installing plates outside the complex without authorization.
The commission revealed that manipulation was discovered in 40 plate installation request receipts, with the two accused having installed plates outside the official complex despite the absence of any administrative orders from the Maysan Traffic Directorate or any instructions permitting such activity.
The integrity investigating judge for Maysan province, specializing in integrity cases, ordered the detention of the two accused and launched a formal investigation in accordance with Article 340 of the Iraqi Penal Code, which governs embezzlement and manipulation of public funds by government employees.
The arrest comes on the same day Baghdad's Interior Ministry announced the dismantling of a separate criminal network in the capital involved in selling stolen vehicles with forged registration plates, with three members arrested and two stolen cars and several counterfeit plates seized. The two cases, occurring on the same day in different provinces, reflect a broader Iraqi government push to crack down on financial manipulation and fraud within the country's vehicle registration system, a sector that has long been identified as vulnerable to corruption given the volume of transactions it handles daily.
As the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and multiple Iraqi anti-corruption watchdogs have noted, Iraq's vehicle registration system has historically been one of the most corruption-prone sectors of the country's bureaucracy, with opportunities for manipulation at every stage from initial registration to plate issuance, fee collection, and renewal. Tuesday's dual crackdown in Baghdad and Maysan signals a coordinated enforcement posture by both the Interior Ministry and the Federal Integrity Commission against this specific vulnerability.