ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - More than 2,700 suspects were arrested on drug-related charges across the Kurdistan Region throughout 2025, an official told The New Region on Monday.

Arkan Bibani, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Region’s anti-narcotics directorate, told The New Region that in Erbil and Duhok a total of 1,707 suspects were arrested on drug-related charges, including 1,034 alleged drug dealers or traffickers. 

In Sulaimani province, 1,005 people were arrested, including 490 drug dealers.

Owing to its geographic position, the Kurdistan Region functions largely as a transit corridor for narcotics trafficked from eastern source countries such as Iran and Afghanistan toward European markets.

“In terms of transit, it is towards many directions…For the most part they transport from the east to the west, but we have [cases from] every direction…Towards Gulf countries from the north to the south or the south to the north,” Bibani said.

“Sometimes you will see that traffickers reroute the narcotics so that suspicion is not placed on that route [the main route used],” he added.

2023 saw the highest number of arrests in Duhok and Erbil, with 2,482 people arrested, including 1,070 who had traded with narcotics. In that same year, security forces also seized nearly three tons of captagon, which was being transited through the Kurdistan Region, according to the spokesperson.

He noted that the high number of arrests was a result of an intensified crackdown by the authorities in that year, and not necessarily because there was higher drug market activity.

In 2024 there were 1,562 arrests in Erbil and Duhok, including 831 dealers or traffickers. The data for 2023 and 2024 does not include Sulaimani province.

Kurdistan Region’s authorities have time and again expressed their commitment to combating the spread of narcotics, ramping up security measures and opening a number of rehabilitation and treatment centers across the Region.