ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – 540 drug traffickers have been arrested in the first six months of 2025 in Erbil and Duhok, indicating a slight uptick in comparison to last year, the spokesperson of the Kurdistan Region’s anti-narcotics department, Arkan Bibani, told The New Region on Thursday.

Bibani said earlier in May that they had arrested “831 individuals” charged with dealing narcotics in Erbil and Duhok in 2024, compared to 2023’s “1,070 perpetrators.”

Within the first six months of 2025, in "Erbil and Duhok, 949 suspects have been arrested. Of this figure, 409 have been users while 540 have been traffickers," Bibani noted, adding that  “453 kilograms of narcotics, 70 kilograms of Captagon pills, and 8,505 sheets of various pills have been seized" between the two provinces, according to the official, who noted that women constitute around 10 percent of drug abusers.

News of the Kurdistan Region’s anti-narcotic forces carrying out drug-related arrests is not a rare sight. Security forces in Erbil announced in late April the dismantling of a drug trafficking network caught in possession of six kilograms of narcotics, just a month after the Kurdistan Region’s anti-narcotics department announced the apprehension of more than a dozen drug traffickers who had over 80 kilograms of narcotics in a two-week-long campaign in the cities of Duhok and Zakho.

Iraq, with its extensive borders with Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, has evolved from a transit route to a significant drug consumption market. Authorities in both the Kurdistan Region and Iraq, however, have redoubled their efforts to root out the problem.

Iraq’s Ministry of Interior announced Monday that it has ranked third in global efforts to fight drug trafficking and abuse, according to the latest World Police Summit held in the UAE, which places Iraq behind India in first place and Montenegro in second. The summit evaluated 138 countries and 205 governmental and non-governmental organizations.

Iraqi authorities arrested around 14,500 suspects on drug-related charges in 2024 and issued death sentences for 144 suspected drug traffickers. At least 454 others were sentenced to perpetual imprisonment (20 years in Iraqi law), according to official data.