Iraq seizes narcotics at Saudi border

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi authorities seized three kilograms of drugs being smuggled into the country across the border with Saudi Arabia, the Border Ports Authority announced on Sunday.

 

"The Arar Border Port Directorate was able to arrest an Iraqi traveler driving a vehicle bearing foreign license plates, inside which a narcotic substance weighing three kilograms was found professionally hidden in an attempt to smuggle it into the country," according to a statement by the office carried by Iraq's state media. 

 

The statement added the driver and his vehicle were handed to "the Anti-Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Division at the Arar port to present the accused and the seized items before the investigating judge of the Rutba Court to take appropriate legal action."

 

Sunday's activity comes less than a month after a Saudi-Iraqi intelligence cooperation led to the arrest of two major international drug traffickers and the seizure of 142 kilograms of liquid methamphetamine worth $1.27 million in Saudi Arabia. The drug had been hidden in big buses transporting pilgrims from Iraq to Saudi Arabia.

 

In recent years, Iraqi authorities have stepped up their fight against drug trafficking. The country, once mostly a transit route, has increasingly become a destination for narcotics - prompting alarm among officials and the public.

 

Around mid-August, Iraq’s interior ministry lauded the country as a “regional leader” in combating drugs, saying that authorities continue providing intelligence on international drug networks to combat the phenomenon.

 

The ministry referred to Iraqi intelligence cooperation in the bust of one of the Middle East’s largest Captagon manufacturing facilities in eastern Lebanon.

 

Iraqi authorities have seized 13 tons of narcotic substances since 2023, according to the ministry, and are using strict judicial rulings, including death sentences, to help deter major dealers. More than 270 death sentences were issued in comparison to five in the previous ten years.

 

Iraq is placed third among 138 countries for combating drugs, according to World Police Summit rankings.