ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi and Syrian anti-narcotics authorities on Sunday announced the dismantling of an international drug trafficking ring following joint operations in Syria’s Homs and Deir ez-Zor provinces.
The Iraqi interior ministry’s directorate for combating drugs said that detachments “moved to execute a series of simultaneous operations inside Syrian territory” in coordination with its Syrian partner institution, dismantling “an international network comprising of nine major drug traffickers resulting in the seizure of 200 kilograms of various narcotics” en-route to Iraqi territory.
In a similar vein, the Syrian interior ministry hailed the operation as an outcome of “fruitful intelligence cooperation” between the two countries in dismantling international smuggling supply lines and networks.
Damascus’s anti-drug authority has allegedly confiscated 800,000 Captagon pills [a highly addictive amphetamine-type stimulant] and 60 kilograms of hashish.
Combating drug-trafficking is a major area of cooperation between Iraq and Syria across their 600 kilometer-long shared borders. By mid-2025, cooperation shifted from monitoring to engaging in cross-border raids, allowing Iraqi security forces to enter Syrian territory to intercept networks smuggling illicit shipments into the country as well as those headed for Gulf markets.
Syria served as a primary manufacturer of Captagon pills under the rule of deposed dictator Bashar Assad, whose brother was believed to have been involved in the business according to former smugglers, officials, intelligence officers, and a pharmaceutical industry insider. Clandestine and makeshift factories continue to operate in the country until today.
Iraq remains one of the primary hubs and transit routes for Captagon, and to date, joint Iraqi-Syrian operations have led to the seizure of more than five million pills of the stimulant since the beginning of 2026.
