Muthanna court jails drug trafficker for life

MUTHANNA — The Muthanna Criminal Court has sentenced a man to life in prison for trafficking after he was caught with methamphetamine and hashish intended for sale, the Supreme Judicial Council said.

“The Muthanna Criminal Court issued a life imprisonment sentence against a drug trafficker for the crime of trafficking narcotic substances,” the council said, adding that he held the drugs “with the intent to traffic and sell them among users.” The sentence was passed under Article 28/First of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Law of 2017. The council did not name him or say how much was seized.

Courts issued 26 death sentences and 119 life sentences in drug cases in the first quarter of this year, the Interior Ministry said, when security forces seized 1,147 kilograms of drugs and arrested 3,742 people, 1,815 of whom were convicted. There were 19 armed clashes with traffickers in the same period, in which one member of the security forces and three traffickers were killed. The head of the North Dhi Qar Anti-Narcotics Department was shot twice in a gunfight with two suspected dealers in Shatrah last week.

Iraq’s Intelligence Service said in May it had intercepted more than a million Captagon pills and 100 kilograms of hashish being moved through Iraq toward neighbouring countries. Five traffickers were jailed for life in Najaf in June for holding methamphetamine for sale, and a Basra court imposed a life term in May in a case involving 1.25 kilograms of methamphetamine.