ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraq’s interior ministry on Friday announced the dismantling of an alleged international drug trafficking network and the seizure of 260 kilograms of narcotics in Sulaimani in conjunction with Kurdish authorities.

The operation, conducted by the Rusafa and Sulaimani Narcotics Affairs Directorates, succeeded in “dismantling an international drug trafficking network following a security pursuit that began in a neighboring country and concluded in Sulaimani,” read the ministry statement.

The statement did not identify the neighboring country where the network began operating.

The efforts led to the seizure of 260 kilograms of Captagon narcotic pills and the arrest of two suspects, “one of whom is a foreign national.”

The ministry said the operation was carried out four months ago, but its announcement was delayed due to “intelligence and investigative reasons,” particularly for the determination of the network’s scope and operational routes.

On Thursday, Iraqi security forces announced the arrest of an alleged drug trafficker in Sulaimani, seizing one kilogram of psilocybin mushrooms and two kilograms of marijuana, in a security operation coordinated with Kurdish anti-narcotic forces.

Counter-narcotics operations have intensified across the country under Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, who said Friday that Iraq is “waging a war” against corruption and drugs, stressing that there will be “no leniency or retreat in this battle.”

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 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.