Authorities in Halabja seize spoiled meat and nearly nine tons of muskmelon

HALABJA — Authorities in Halabja have confiscated 65 kilograms of spoiled meat and nearly nine tons of muskmelon that were deemed unfit for resale, officials said Saturday.

Falah Namiq, head of the joint committees at the Halabja district administration, told 964media that officials intercepted the meat at the Zamaq checkpoint at the city’s entrance. “Our teams discovered that the meat lacked any veterinary certification and had an unpleasant odor, so it was destroyed,” he said.

The shipment was originally intended for sale in Sulaymaniyah. Both the driver and the meat’s owner have been summoned for questioning and will face legal consequences if found in violation of regulations.

In a related development, the Halabja Directorate of Agriculture reported that authorities at the Shushme border crossing seized 8.93 tons of muskmelon deemed unfit for consumption and ordered the shipment returned to Iran. The crossing connects Halabja Governorate in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region with Kermanshah Province in Iran. The last urban center on the Kurdistan side is Tawela, about 22 kilometers from central Halabja.

Officials noted that on Jan. 26 nearly 24 tons of spoiled goods, including dates, peppers, onions, and grapes, were confiscated and returned to Iran through the Shushme crossing. In 2024, the crossing facilitated the import of 89,192 tons of agricultural and commercial goods into the Kurdistan Region, of which nearly 196,630 kilograms were later deemed unfit and confiscated.

Elsewhere, the Directorate of Commercial Monitoring in Duhok announced Saturday that authorities seized 120 kilograms of expired goods and imposed fines on five businesses during a market inspection campaign.

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