SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Kurdish security forces in Sulaimani detained two suspected traffickers and five users of narcotics, authorities said on Sunday.
The directorate of Asayish (security) in Sulaimani said its units had detained a woman and six other men over drug trafficking and using in the past 20 days.
“Two of them are traffickers and the other five were users,” the directorate said in a statement.
One of the suspected traffickers was arrested in coordination with the directorate of Asayish in Taq Taq, the statement read.
The security forces also seized methamphetamine and hashish during the detention of the suspects, according to the directorate of Asayish.
The security forces seized more than 555 kilograms of narcotics including heroin, methamphetamine and hashish in 2020, according to the 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.
