By: Halo Muhammad

KHANAQEEN, Kurdistan Region— A record number of drug arrests have been made this month in the border district of Khanaqeen, as Kurdish authorities struggle to fight cross-border drug trafficking into the region.

At least 17 people, some from neighboring Turkey and Iran, have been arrested by Kurdish narcotic police so far in June, a significant increase compared to previous months according to authorities in Khanaqeen.

“When we ask them where they got hold of the substances, they usually refer to neighboring countries,” Lieutenant Aqil Joma Ali, of the Anti-Narcotic police force, told Rudaw.

According to the data provided by Kurdish security, nearly 100 illicit drug-related arrests are made each year in Khanaqeen, which borders Iran, a country seen as a transit route for illegal drugs.

Iraq has strict laws in place for drug-related offenses and gives authorities legal room to discipline both dealers and consumers.

“I have been charged with possession of illegal drugs and wait for my sentence,” a Kurdish man who was arrested with illicit substances told Rudaw.

Another defendant, a driver from Iran, said he was unaware of the law in the Kurdistan region while driving under influence of prohibited drugs.

“I was arrested with a few grams of taryak and I had no idea it was punishable even to use it here,” the truck driver told Rudaw as he was handcuffed in a police station in Khanaqeen.

Iraq signed the United Nations Drug Convention of 1988 and has established anti-narcotics offices in police directorates in all provinces.

A European Union report on narcotics and security in 2013 said Iraq did not have “a large drug production or consumption problem relative to similarly situated nations.”

“Smuggling of drugs into Iraq for domestic consumption is to a certain extent made difficult by high levels of security along transportation routes into Iraq’s population centers,” the report said.

Rudaw