ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The Kurdistan Region’s security forces have arrested nearly 1,500 suspects on drug-related charges and seized around half a ton of narcotics in the first six months of the year, the Region’s anti-narcotics directorate said, as Erbil continues to fight illicit drugs. 

“In the first six months of this year, in both Erbil and Duhok provinces, 949 suspects were arrested … and during the same period, 453 kilograms of narcotics, 70 kilograms of Captagon pills, and 8,505 sheets of various pills were seized,” Arkan Bibani, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Region’s anti-narcotics directorate, told The New Region.

Bibani added that an additional 502 drug-trafficking suspects were arrested in Sulaimani province during the same period. 

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

Bibani lauded the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) for its efforts, saying it has “made combating narcotics a priority.” 

“Since 2022, we began an extensive campaign to arrest drug dealers, and we also intensively worked on the routes through which drugs are transported,” he said. 

Erbil has also worked with countries regionally and internationally to combat the surge in narcotic activity.

“We have dismantled several international drug trafficking networks and arrested all their members. Our activities have extended beyond the Kurdistan Region and Iraq to outside the country as well. We were able to arrest several suspects outside the country and bring them back to prosecute them in the Kurdistan Region,” Bibani noted.

Over 6,700 suspects have been arrested between 2022 and mid-2025 on drug-related charges, including 3,306 drug dealers, according to the anti-narcotics directorate.