ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The Iraqi government announced Sunday that it “thwarted” an attempt to smuggle 15 kilograms of narcotics into the country from neighboring Syria.

Iraq’s border authorities “thwarted an attempt to smuggle a large quantity of narcotics from [Syria’s] Baghouz area” as part of Baghdad’s "ongoing efforts to protect the Iraqi border and prevent international drug trafficking,” read a statement by the interior ministry.

“The operation resulted in the seizure of (11) kilograms of Captagon pills, in addition to (4) kilograms of hashish,” the statement said.

It went on to detail that “the substances were placed inside tightly sealed plastic containers, in an attempt to camouflage them and smuggle them across the Euphrates River,” it said.

Captagon, the brand name for the amphetamine-type psychostimulant fenethylline, has gained popularity among drug users, with authorities interdicting myriad smugglers and seizing millions of pills entering the country last year.

The Sunday campaign comes a week after the Iraqi government announced it had arrested over 3,000 suspected drug traffickers and seized more than two tons of narcotics during the first quarter of this year.

Iraq, with its extensive borders with Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, has evolved from a transit route into a significant drug consumption market.

Despite consecutive government pledges to combat drug-related issues in the country and Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani's order to establish rehabilitation centers across all Iraqi provinces, the country's infrastructure remains too weak to handle the rapid increase in drug use.

Despite imposing severe penalties, Iraq continues to face an escalating drug problem that has intensified since the US invasion in 2003.

Iraqi security forces have made significant strides; however, the country faces substantial challenges, such as insufficient rehabilitation centers and overcrowded prisons, leading to high relapse rates among former inmates.

Iraq's stringent narcotics laws, which impose death sentences and life imprisonment for drug-related offenses, are a response to the severity of the crisis but have yet to fully curb the increasing drug use and trafficking.