Military intelligence seizes over 81,000 narcotic pills in Anbar desert operation

ANBAR — Iraq’s Military Intelligence Directorate announced Monday the seizure of more than 81,000 narcotic pills in Anbar governorate, following continuous surveillance by intelligence and security personnel from the Fifth Infantry Division.

The directorate said the operation was conducted under directives aimed at combating drug trafficking and arresting dealers, distributors and smugglers, with units locating the pills in the Anbar desert.

Earlier this month, Iraq’s Intelligence Service foiled an attempt to smuggle more than 1 million captagon pills and 100 kilograms of hashish through Iraqi territory to neighboring countries.

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.