SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Security forces in Sulaimani have detained 23 people in 48 hours over drug using and trafficking, an official said on Tuesday.
Director of Anti-narcotics department Pshtiwan Bahadin said most of the detainees who were members of three “bands” had tried to illegally export drugs to foreign countries from the Kurdistan Region.
“The Kurdistan Region has become like a transit, unfortunately. The detainees don’t use the drugs inside Kurdistan, but want to [take them] to outside Kurdistan,” Bahadin said in a press conference.
The detainees included three women and 20 men, according to Bahadin.
The security forces detained 123 people including foreigners over drug using and trafficking in Sulaimani province in the past three months, Bahadin said.
In 2020, Kurdish security forces seized more than 555 kilograms of narcotics including heroin, methamphetamine and hashish, according to the Kurdistan Region’s directorate of anti-narcotics.
Kurdish officials have warned that drug trafficking threatens to become an epidemic if anti-narcotics forces fail to curtail its rise in the Kurdistan Region.
According to security officials, some of the drugs that they seize are imported illegally from Iran.
