ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani on Sunday stated that Baghdad has seized six tons of narcotics as a result of bolstered collaboration with other countries in its counter-narcotics efforts.

“Our government has worked to enhance coordination and cooperation and has established 33 points of contact with other countries” to combat drug trafficking, Sudani said at the third Baghdad International Drug Control Conference.

“Six tons of drugs were seized as a result of international coordination,” Sudani added.

Speaking at the conference, an official from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) commended Baghdad “for its efforts in combating drugs,” adding that “we remain committed to working with Iraq in its anti-drug efforts.”

With its extensive borders with Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, Iraq has become a major transit route for drug trafficking.

Baghdad has intensified coordinated operations with neighboring states to prevent drug smuggling over their shared borders and seize large amounts of narcotics.

In October, Iraqi and Syrian anti-narcotics forces seized 370 kilograms of drugs during a joint operation in Syria and arrested several internationally wanted suspected traffickers.

Meanwhile, Baghdad signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Tehran in September, aimed at intensifying coordination to combat drugs and bolster border security.

Iraq has also conducted anti-narcotics operations with Saudi Arabia, where Iraqi security forces arrested two of the “top international drug dealers” in Saudi Arabia’s Medina in mid-September, following high-level coordination between anti-drug authorities in the two countries.

According to the World Police Summit held in the UAE in May, Iraq ranked third in combating narcotics, with India in first place and Montenegro coming second. The summit evaluated 138 countries and 205 government and non-government organizations.

In late November, the interior ministry said that Iraq had dismantled over 1,200 drug trafficking networks in the past three years, including 171 international cells.

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.