ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Iraqi intelligence service announced late Monday that it had thwarted an attempt to smuggle more than one million Captagon pills and 100 kilograms of hashish through Iraqi territory.
Cited by state media, the Iraqi National Intelligence Service said in a statement that the “members of the criminal network” were arrested in “several provinces” after their movements were tracked using “precise intelligence,” in coordination with security forces in Sulaimani.
The statement added that the suspects were attempting to transport the contraband to “neighboring countries.”
In late April, the Iraqi interior ministry said it had dismantled 1,538 trafficking networks since 2023, resulting in 349 death sentences and 1,325 life sentences issued by the Iraqi judiciary.
More than 230 of those networks were run by transnational groups, prompting Iraqi security forces to carry out 61 operations abroad, according to the ministry.