ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani on Saturday congratulated the Iraqi interior ministry for winning the top spot in an international anti-narcotics competition held in Tunisia earlier in the week.

Iraq’s interior ministry snatched first place in the “Best Operational Field Intelligence Cooperation Competition,” both at the international and the Arab level. The competition was organized by the General Secretariat of the Council of Arab Interior Ministers as part of the 39th Arab Conference of the Heads of Anti-Narcotics Agencies, which also saw representation from the European Union’s Drugs Agency (EUDA).

“We extend our congratulations to the service members of the Ministry of Interior for winning two awards, at both the Arab and international levels, for outstanding field, intelligence, and operational cooperation in dismantling drug trafficking networks,” Sudani wrote on X.

Sudani hailed the achievement as “one of the outcomes of the great attention our government has devoted to combating drugs,” reaffirming his cabinet’s “unwavering commitment” to continue fighting the phenomenon.

The 39th Arab Conference of the Heads of Anti-Narcotics Agencies was held earlier in the week in Tunisia. Aiming to serve as a platform to exchange experiences and know-how, the conference follows up on recommendations put forth in previous iterations and addresses trends in drug production and consumption.

The Iraqi interior ministry announced earlier on Saturday that Interior Minister Abdul Amir al-Shammari had received the awards after they were transferred to Iraq from the General Secretariat of the Council of Arab Interior Ministers.

“Iraq has become a hub for Arab and regional countries in combating this scourge,” the ministry quoted Shammari as saying, adding that he had instructed Iraq’s anti-narcotics department to further intensify efforts to battle the phenomenon.

The interior ministry’s win marks the second international first-place award seized by Iraq’s security forces in October, after the country’s Counter-Terrorism Service announced earlier in the month that its teams had bested 38 military teams from 20 countries to win the Annual Warriors Competition held in Jordan.

Iraq, with its extensive borders with Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, has evolved from a transit route to a significant consumption market. Authorities in both the Kurdistan Region and Iraq, however, have redoubled their efforts to root out the problem, with initiatives aiming to provide users with necessary assistance, as well as frequent operations to apprehend traffickers.

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 life (20 years in Iraqi law), according to official data.

In the first three months of 2025 alone, authorities across Iraq detained at least 1,365 suspected drug traffickers of Iraqi nationality and 194 foreign nationals, according to data published by the General Directorate of Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances in late March.