Kurdistan Region confiscates 30 kg of heroin, arrests five

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan Region security forces (Asayish) announced on Saturday the arrest of five individuals suspected of narcotics trafficking after the seizure of 30 kilograms of heroin in Duhok province.

Abdul Wahab Mohammed, head of the Ibrahim Khalil border crossing on the border of Turkey, told Kurdistan 24, “On Thursday night after receiving intelligence and conducting further investigations, we successfully seized 30 kilograms of heroin in Duhok’s city center.”

“After obtaining the legal warrant from the Zakho district judiciary, and in coordination with Duhok city’s security forces, we were able to apprehend all five suspects,” Mohammed added.

He said that his office deployed three teams to arrest the suspects after learning that “the traffickers were handing out the drug at one location, receiving the money at another, and testing the drug and giving out samples at a third location.”

The official also explained that three of the suspects are citizens of Duhok province while the other two are displaced persons living in the Makhmour displacement camp.

He added that most drug traffickers who are arrested in the area are not originally from the Kurdistan Region and that the reason Duhok is has a high amount of trafficking activity is due to the fact that the province is strategically located because it shares international borders with Turkey and Syria.

The sale and consumption of any narcotics are strictly forbidden in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.

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.

Most illicit drugs are smuggled into the region via the border with Iran on their way to Turkey, Syria, and ultimately, Europe and North America. 

Editing by John J. Catherine