SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Security forces in Sulaimani arrested eight suspects over drug trafficking in the province, the Asayish directorate said on Monday.
The Directorate of Asayish in Sulaimani said its forces had detained the suspects in three raids in the city in the last two months.
“The persons were arrested over drug trafficking and they had attempted to take the drugs outside the Kurdistan Region,” it said in a statement.
More than six kilograms of narcotics including hashish and methamphetamine during the operations, it added.
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.
Sulaimani’s security forces had seized more than 300 kilograms of narcotics and detained four suspects in June and July, according to authorities.
In Erbil, the Kurdish forces detained 10 suspects and confiscated more than 23 kilograms of drugs in June.
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.
According to security officials, some of the drugs that they seize are imported illegally from Iran.
