ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iraqi and Kurdish security forces arrested three suspected drug traffickers and seized five kilograms of crystal methamphetamine in Erbil, the federal interior ministry said Saturday.

“The Salahaddin Narcotics Directorate, in close coordination with the Erbil Anti-Narcotics Directorate, conducted a joint security operation that underscores the integrated efforts in combating drug trafficking networks,” the ministry said.

“The operation resulted in the arrest of three suspects and the seizure of 5 kg of crystal methamphetamine,” it added.

Last month, Ihsan Abdulrahman, head of the Kurdistan Region’s correctional facilities, told reporters that more than 6,200 inmates are serving their sentences, of which 1958 inmates are arrested for either the trade or use of drugs, making drug-related offenses the largest category among inmates.

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

Earlier in February, an official from the Kurdistan Region’s anti-narcotics directorate told The New Region that more than 2,700 suspects were arrested on drug-related charges across the Kurdistan Region throughout 2025.

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

Iraq’s stringent narcotics laws, which impose death or life sentences for drug-related offenses, are a response to the severity of the crisis but have yet to fully curb the increasing drug use and trafficking.