ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraqi security forces dismantled an international drug smuggling network in a security operation, seizing 90 kg of narcotics, the interior ministry announced on Saturday, as Baghdad ramps up efforts to combat the spread of drugs in the country.

The operation, which took place in Iraqi territorial waters, “resulted in the dismantling of an international network consisting of three suspects, including a foreign national, and the seizure of 90 kg of hashish, in addition to two boats used in the smuggling operation,” read an announcement from the interior ministry.

The operation was undertaken under the supervision of the General Directorate of Narcotics Affairs, in coordination with the Military Intelligence Directorate and the Naval Forces Command, it added.

Following several days of surveillance, anti-narcotics teams departed from the Umm Qasr naval base for the targeted location, with the round trip taking 16 hours.

In May, Iraq’s interior ministry revealed that it had seized more than one and a half tons of narcotics since the beginning of 2026, and issued more than 40 death sentences.

In January, Iraq’s National Security Service (INSS) said it arrested more than 800 individuals on drug-related charges in 2025, in addition to seizing hundreds of kilograms of narcotic substances. The numbers from INSS do not account for all of Iraq’s drug-related arrests and seizures, as multiple official bodies work on combating the spread of narcotics.

Meanwhile, more than 2,700 suspects were arrested on drug-related charges across the Kurdistan Region in 2025, Arkan Bibani, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Region’s anti-narcotics directorate, told The New Region in mid-February.

Despite imposing severe penalties, Iraq continues to face an escalating drug problem that has intensified since the US invasion in 2003. 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 curb the increasing drug use and trafficking fully.