Kerosene smuggling attempt foiled in Diyala, driver arrested

DIYALA — Iraqi Military Intelligence said Saturday it had stopped an attempt to smuggle petroleum products in Diyala, seizing a vehicle loaded with kerosene and arresting the driver.

Intelligence and security personnel from the 1st Infantry Division intercepted the vehicle after surveillance and intelligence monitoring, the directorate said, and handed the suspect, the vehicle and the kerosene to the relevant authorities for legal proceedings. It did not say how much kerosene was seized or where it was headed.

The National Security Service said in late September that it had broken up a network stealing crude from the strategic pipeline in Muthanna through two breaches and 270 meters of buried pipe running into a nearby farm, earning about 500 million dinars (about $330,000 at the official rate) a month. On Aug. 7, the service found a hidden line siphoning crude toward the Siniya refinery in Salah al-Din, concealed behind a car wash, in operations across three governorates that led to five arrests. In Basra, it broke up an organized smuggling operation on May 26, and earlier that month the Energy Police raided a hidden site in Abu al-Khasib used to recycle and smuggle petroleum products. One person was killed near the Rumaila field in April 2025 when police confronted a group tapping pipelines, and a Karbala court jailed two people for 15 years in December 2024 for puncturing a pipeline and diverting crude.