Iraq arrests suspected major drug trafficker, seizes 40 kilograms of narcotics after deadly Babil raid

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s Interior Ministry on Friday announced the arrest of a high-level drug trafficker and the seizure of 40 kilograms of narcotics in a raid carried out in southern Iraq, less than 24 hours after a deadly operation in Babil governorate left a senior intelligence officer dead.

“In revenge for the blood of our heroic martyrs who fell while performing their national duty [on Thursday], and as part of the firm security operations conducted by the Interior Ministry’s units, the General Directorate of Narcotics Control carried out a swift and precise operation today in a region in southern Iraq,” the ministry said in a statement.

The operation targeted what the ministry described as an international-level trafficker and resulted in the confiscation of heroin, crystal methamphetamine, and a large quantity of Captagon pills. Authorities said additional suspects linked to the network are still being pursued.

The raid followed a deadly encounter on Thursday in Hilla’s Bakrli neighborhood, where anti-narcotics officers attempted to arrest a known trafficker. “The officer killed in the operation today is Mohammed Qasim, head of the Musayyib Intelligence Division, along with another lieutenant who was injured,” a security source told 964media. The suspect opened fire using a Kalashnikov rifle, was injured in the exchange, and was arrested at the scene.

The Interior Ministry confirmed that a second person was killed in the raid. “The Minister of Interior has ordered a high-level investigative committee to determine the circumstances of this person’s death, and whether he was a wanted individual or simply present at the scene by mistake,” the ministry said.

Describing Friday’s raid as one of the strongest preemptive operations in its campaign against organized narcotics crime, the ministry said: “Our battle against drugs will continue until Iraqi land is cleansed of its poison, to protect our youth and the future of our country.”

Officials say Iraq is in the midst of its most expansive anti-narcotics effort to date. Brig. Gen. Miqdad Miri, spokesperson for the Interior Ministry, said nearly 656 drug trafficking networks — both domestic and international — have been dismantled over the past two years. “This is the highest number ever recorded in Iraq’s fight against this crime,” he told 964media.