ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The Iraqi National Security Service (INSS) announced on Tuesday that they have uncovered large amounts of “counterfeit” and “smuggled” medicines in operations across four provinces in the country.

The INSS stated that their detachments in Basra arrested three individuals accused of “smuggling 285 boxes of unregistered medicines and 500,000 ampoules” with forged customs papers headed to Baghdad.

Authorities also arrested two suspects of “an organized network” in Kirkuk, and seized “a secret warehouse containing 124,000 unlicensed pharmaceutical items” which were allegedly being “smuggled from the Kurdistan Region,” according to the statement.

Smuggled and non-compliant medications have long been an issue for the Iraqi pharmaceutical sector. Price differences, drug shortages, as well as chronic users of these medications have helped build a market for these illegal medications.

Many pharmacies have “dealers” who smuggle the medications from neighboring countries to them, who then subsequently hide it somewhere in the pharmacy until a patient comes asking for it.

The issue is made worse by the fact that some of these medications have certain storage conditions and regulations which are often ignored, potentially leading to the breakdown and degradation of the medicines.

 “A violating pharmacy containing 1,757 expired pharmaceutical items was seized in Maysan,” the statement added.

In Wasit meanwhile, “19,000 expired medicine boxes weighing more than one ton and 750 kilograms were seized, in addition to 1,161 boxes of counterfeit medicines,” the statement added, noting that the main suspect has also been captured.