Iraq seizes 25 kg of drugs at sea, arrests 2 foreign suspects

BAGHDAD — Iraqi forces seized 25 kilograms of drugs and arrested two foreign nationals suspected of trafficking in an operation in Iraq’s territorial waters, the General Directorate of Narcotics Affairs said Thursday.

Narcotics teams carried out the operation with the Naval Forces Command and the Naval Intelligence Directorate and are still searching for a third suspect from the same network, the Interior Ministry directorate said in a statement to 964media.

The operation followed intelligence that criminal networks were still using sea routes to move drug shipments into Iraq and neighboring countries, the directorate said. It did not give the suspects’ nationalities, the type of drugs seized or where the operation took place.

The directorate said it would press on with preemptive operations “to dry up the sources of this scourge” and to stop trafficking networks from using Iraq’s land and waters “as a corridor for the trade in poisons.”

The seizure is the third in Iraqi waters reported since early October. On Oct. 18, three foreign nationals were arrested at sea after an exchange of gunfire, and one of them was wounded. After two days of surveillance, forces recovered 30 kilograms of drugs the suspects had thrown overboard, the Interior Ministry said.

Earlier in October, forces intercepted a boat carrying 90 kilograms of hashish and arrested three foreign nationals, acting on a tip from a neighboring country, the narcotics directorate said. A fourth suspect escaped.

Iraqi intelligence also led to the seizure of about 9 metric tons of drugs in joint operations in seven countries, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Salih al-Zarkani, head of the narcotics directorate, told the state-run Iraqi News Agency on Monday. He named the countries as Kuwait, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Libya. He did not say over what period the drugs were seized, and 964media could not verify the total.

In the first quarter of 2026, security forces seized 1,147 kilograms of drugs and arrested 3,742 people, and courts handed down 119 life sentences in drug cases, the Interior Ministry said. The judiciary issued 26 death sentences in drug cases over the same period.