ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The number of drug traffickers and the availability of illicit drugs in the Kurdistan Region have significantly declined in recent years, according to the spokesperson of the Region’s anti-narcotics department, Arkan Bibani.

“In the year 2023, we arrested 1,070 perpetrators on charges of trading and dealing in narcotics,” Bibani told The New Region, a number that saw a sharp decline come 2024, according to him, where the number “dropped to 831 individuals,” noting that their efforts towards arresting traffickers have “lowered the curve” of the phenomenon.

Bibani added that since 2022, they have arrested “3,306 drug traffickers” in Erbil and Duhok.

News of the Kurdistan Region’s anti-narcotic forces carrying out drug-related arrests is not a rare sight. Security forces in Erbil announced in late April the dismantling of a drug trafficking network caught in possession of six kilograms of narcotics, just a month after Kurdistan Region’s anti-narcotics department announced the apprehension of more than a dozen drug traffickers who had over 80 kilograms of narcotics in a two-week-long campaign in Duhok and Zakho cities.

The department announced in March that they had coordinated with the Iraqi government in the seizure of over one ton of Captagon pills that had been brought to Iraq from Syria via Turkey.

According to Bibani, their forces have also carried out operations outside Iraqi borders, orchestrating extranational arrests and helping bring the criminals to justice back home.

Iraq, with its extensive borders with Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, has evolved from a transit route to a significant drug consumption market. Authorities in both the Kurdistan Region and Iraq, however, have redoubled their efforts to root out the problem.

Iraq’s Ministry of Interior announced Monday that it has ranked third in global efforts to fight drug trafficking and abuse, according to the latest World Police Summit held in the UAE, which places Iraq behind India in first place and Montenegro in second. The summit evaluated 138 countries and 205 governmental and non-governmental organizations.

Iraqi authorities arrested around 14,500 suspects on drug-related charges in 2024 and issued death sentences for 144 suspected drug traffickers. At least 454 others were sentenced to perpetual imprisonment (20 years in Iraqi law), according to official data.