SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraqi forces detained 12,000 suspects over drug using and trafficking in 2021, the ministry of interior said on Monday.
Spokesman of Iraq’s interior ministry Khalid Mhana told Esta Media Network that part of the detainees had also committed crimes such as robbery and sexual assault.
“Several tons of drugs have been seized by the security forces during the year,” Mhana said, adding that a number of “big drug traffickers” were also detained.
“Some of them confronted the security and forces and were killed,” he noted.
Until about eight years ago, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, Iraq was essentially a transit country, meaning most drugs passed through on their way to somewhere else.
In 2020, the security forces detained 11,500 suspects and seized more than 390 kilograms of drugs, according to authorities. More than 1 million drug pills and 15 millions of other types of narcotics.
