Drone tracks rooftop-fleeing suspect during Baghdad drug raid

BAGHDAD — National Security Service units arrested a suspected drug dealer in Baghdad’s al-Habibiya area Monday night after the suspect attempted to flee across rooftops, with drones used to track and pinpoint his location.

The operation was carried out under a judicial warrant, with the suspect and seized materials handed over to relevant authorities.

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.