Iraq court sentences five to death for drug trafficking

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s Central Criminal Court on Wednesday sentenced five individuals to death after convicting them of drug trafficking, according to a statement from the judiciary.

The statement, issued by the Supreme Judicial Council’s media office, said the court found the defendants guilty of trafficking narcotic substances.

Authorities said the convicted individuals were in possession of 2.8 kilograms of methamphetamine, 1,100 tramadol pills, other narcotic substances and sums of money.

Iraq’s judiciary issued 26 death sentences against drug traffickers during the first quarter of 2026, the Interior Ministry said Sunday.

Iraq has faced growing narcotics challenges, evolving from a transit corridor into both a consumer market and redistribution hub, with traffickers increasingly using sophisticated cross-border networks and, in some cases, aerial methods such as GPS-equipped balloons to move drugs across the Anbar border.

Courts have responded with severe penalties — between January and August 2024, judges issued 140 death sentences and 500 life sentences in trafficking cases, with 3,006 arrests recorded in the first quarter of 2025 alone.