ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi and Kuwaiti anti-drug authorities seized 700,000 Captagon pills and arrested two people in a joint operation in Kuwait's Kabd area on Sunday, Iraq’s General Directorate for Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Affairs said.
According to a Sunday statement, personnel from the directorate's Anbar branch travelled to Kuwait and joined Kuwait's General Directorate for Narcotics Control in the operation, which took place in the Jawakhir area of Kabd.
Kuwait's Interior Ministry also confirmed the operation on Sunday, saying an Iraqi national and another person residing in Kuwait illegally were arrested. The ministry did not disclose the nationality of the second suspect.
The joint operation comes as Iraq has intensified its anti-narcotics campaign this year.
The General Directorate for Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Affairs said in late August that 4,644 people had been convicted in drug-related cases since the beginning of the year, including 69 death sentences and 267 life sentences. Authorities also said they had dismantled 304 domestic and 54 international trafficking networks, carried out 21 operations abroad, established six contact points and issued 43 international arrest warrants.
The directorate also reported 32 armed clashes with drug traffickers this year, in which one member of its forces was killed, and 31 were wounded. Three traffickers were killed, and 23 were wounded in the confrontations, according to the directorate's figures.
According to Kuwait’s statement on Sunday, the two suspects were found in possession of the seized pills and admitted during questioning that the drugs belonged to them and had been prepared for sale. They were taken into custody, with legal proceedings initiated against them.
Both sides praised their cooperation and said they would continue working together to combat drug trafficking.
In a separate operation on Sunday, Iraq's Popular Mobilization Commission, which oversees the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), said it had arrested a “famous international drug trafficker” on the Iraq-Syria border. The commission did not disclose the suspect's name or nationality.
On Saturday evening, the head of the anti-drug directorate in Dhi Qar province was wounded in a shootout with two suspected drug traffickers in Shatra district.
The Basra Criminal Court also on Sunday sentenced a foreign national to death for drug trafficking after the defendant was found with 10 kilograms and 50 grams of hashish intended for trafficking and distribution, according to the Supreme Judicial Council.
The council did not disclose the defendant's name, nationality or arrest date.
The death sentence was issued under Article 27 (First) of Iraq’s Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Law No. 50 of 2017. The provision carries a penalty of death or life imprisonment for certain narcotics offences, including the unauthorized import, export or transport of narcotic or psychotropic substances or chemical precursors with the intent to traffic, as well as their production or manufacture for trafficking and certain cultivation offences.
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