Basra court sentences drug trafficker to death over 20 kilograms of methamphetamine

BASRA — A Basra criminal court sentenced a drug trafficker to death on Wednesday after he was found in possession of 20 kilograms and 300 grams of methamphetamine intended for sale, according to a statement from Iraq’s judiciary.

The ruling was issued under Article 27/First of Iraq’s Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Law No. 50 of 2017.

Iraq’s judiciary issued 26 death sentences against drug traffickers in the first quarter of 2026 alone. The country has evolved from a transit corridor into both a consumer market and redistribution hub, with traffickers increasingly using sophisticated cross-border networks and, in some cases, GPS-equipped balloons to move drugs across the Anbar border. Between January and August 2024, courts issued 140 death sentences and 500 life sentences in trafficking cases, with 3,006 arrests recorded in the first quarter of 2025.