Drug trafficking and use have been on the rise in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq since the fall of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, with officials frequently warning of the spread of drugs in the Region.
“In the first four months of this year in Erbil and Duhok provinces, 612 people have been arrested on drug charges, 283 users and 329 traffickers,” Arkan Bibani, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Region’s anti-narcotics directorate, told Rudaw.
Salam Abdulkhaliq, head of the Sulaimani-based security forces (Asayish) media team, told Rudaw that in Sulaimani and Halabja provinces, as well as the Raparin and Garmiyan administrations, “388 suspects have been arrested for drug trafficking and use in the first four months of this year - 173 users and the rest were traffickers.”
At least 550 kilograms of narcotic pills, 70 kilograms of Captagon, and 8,300 blister packs and individual pills have also been seized, according to combined statistics from the officials.
The Kurdistan Region and Iraq, especially along their borders with Iran, Turkey, and Syria, are major transit routes for illicit drugs into Europe.
In October 2023, Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said that the Kurdistan Region is intensifying its efforts to combat the threat of drugs, calling on Kurdish and international communities to cooperate with Erbil to eliminate what he described as an “endemic” problem.
One-fifth of the Kurdistan Region’s prisoners are behind bars on drug-related charges, according to data obtained by Rudaw from government sources.
In July, a research study published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Regional Office reported that Iraq - including the Kurdistan Region - has recorded a “sharp increase in the trafficking and use of Captagon over the past five years.”
