Around 2.5 million Captagon pills have been seized in the Iraqi provinces of Najaf and Anbar, the spokesperson to the country’s interior ministry announced on Tuesday.

Miqdad Miri in a statement announced that the anti-narcotics department “seized about two and a half million Captagon-type narcotic pills in the provinces of Najaf and Anbar.”

Miri added that 11 people convicted with drug-related charges have been handed death sentences on Tuesday, bringing the number of people sentenced over the past five months to 70 people.

Speaking to The New Region, a source from Najaf’s intelligence office said that of the 2.5 million pills seized, nearly half of them were seized in Najaf.

“An operation last week led to the arrest of a drug dealer that carried 40,000 Captagon pills on him,” the source said, adding that the arrested dealer had confessed to the teams and led them to a bigger dealer.

“He confessed and led the team to a person who had access to the storage in Najaf’s desert, so they arrested him and found two bags hidden under the ground, which were a combined 150 kilograms and contained 980,000 Captagon pills,” he said.

Following the 2003 US invasion, Iraq has seen tremendous increase in drug trafficking and use, despite continuous attempts to combat the phenomena.

In a 2022 report, the Washington Institute said that prior to the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraq served merely as a transit route for drugs produced in Iran and Pakistan, but following the war, Iraq has developed into a manufacturer of drugs as well.

Iraqi politicians have previously warned against the rapid increase of drugs in the country.

Earlier this month, Iraqi state media reported that security forces had dismantled seven drug trafficking networks in the provinces of Baghdad, Diwaniyah, and Muthanna.

In July 2023, Iraq announced that it had seized a Captagon lab in Muthanna province, the first of its kind in the country.

Despite consecutive government cabinet’s pledging to fight the drug phenomena in the country and Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani having ordered the establishment of rehabilitation centers across all Iraqi provinces, the country’s infrastructure is still too weak to combat the rapid increase in drug use.

Article 27 of the Iraqi Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Law dictates that any suspect charged with exporting, importing, producing, or planting narcotic substances is subject to either a death penalty or life sentence, leaving no room for redemption.

Prison cells across the country are often seen overcrowded with people. Both drug dealers and users are inseparably squeezed into cells together, with few rehab centers available across the country. This has in turn increased cases of relapse even after one has served prison time.