The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) published its report, “Drug Trafficking Dynamics across Iraq and the Middle East: Trends and Responses,” during the Baghdad International Conference on Combating Drugs, held in the Iraqi capital for the second consecutive year.
According to the report, captagon seizures by Iraqi security forces nearly quadrupled in 2023, with approximately 24 million tablets weighing about 4,094 kilograms, compared to 1,256 kilograms in 2022. The retail value of the seized pills is estimated to be around $144 million. The price of a single tablet ranges from $3.50 to $6.
“The sharp increase in seizures may reflect both an increased availability of drugs trafficked through the region, as well as enhanced Iraqi and international counter-narcotics and interdiction measures,” the report said.
Other types of drugs such as opium, heroin, methamphetamine, and cannabis resin have also experienced a sharp surge between 2019 and 2023.
“Methamphetamine seizures increased almost sixfold in 2023 compared to 2019, while “captagon” seizures reportedly tripled between 2022 and 2023, and overall amounts seized in 2023 are 34 times higher than in 2019,” the report said.
It also noted that 82 percent of the captagon pills seized in Iraq between 2019 and 2023 were imported from Syria, and 17 percent were from Lebanon.
The report pointed out that there are “three key internal corridors” used to smuggle drugs across Iraq, located in the southern, central, and northern regions of the country, including the Kurdistan Region.
According to the report, the smuggling route through the Kurdistan Region “has provided smugglers an alternative to the Iran-Türkiye border for opiates trafficking.” It also noted that the Kurdish security forces also cracked down on narcotics.
About 1,385 captagon pills have been seized in the Kurdistan Region in 2023, nearly one-third of the total amount seized in Iraq, and over four times the amount confiscated in 2022.
The northern internal route that passes through the Kurdistan Region, according to the report, primarily “involves the trafficking of opiates and methamphetamine smuggled through the Iraq-Iran border.”
“According to au authorities perception, roughly 80 percent of the drugs traversing the northern internal route cross the eastern border while the remaining 20 percent pass through the Syrian Arab Republic and Türkiye,” it said.
The rate of drug addicts and dealers has been on an alarming rise in Iraq in recent years, despite strict measures taken by the Iraqi government to curb the phenomenon.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani on Monday highlighted the threat that drugs pose to the country’s future and likened the effects of narcotics to those of war and displacement.
“The threat of drugs not only harms our youth but endangers our entire future… The effects of drugs are akin to those of wars, displacement, and the uprooting of peoples from their foundations,” Sudani said during the Baghdad International Conference on Combating Drugs.
Sudani has ordered the establishment of rehabilitation centers in all Iraqi provinces, excluding the Kurdistan Region, as part of his cabinet’s commitment to combat drugs with the same determination as it fights terrorism.
In 2023, more than 19,000 people were arrested across Iraq on drug-related charges, and over 15 tons of psychotropic substances were seized. At least 17 drug suspects were killed in clashes with security forces last year, according to the Iraqi interior ministry.
In a quadrilateral meeting in Amman in mid-February, the interior ministers of Iraq, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon agreed to establish a joint communications cell to keep up cooperation on addressing the alarming rise of narcotics in their countries.
