Iraq arrests about 10,000 for drug crimes in Jan.-Aug.

BAGHDAD, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) — Iraqi authorities said on Tuesday that about 10,000 suspects have been arrested across the country for drug-related crimes so far this year.
Hussein al-Tamimi, director of the media office at the Interior Ministry’s General Directorate of Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Affairs, told the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) that the judiciary has issued rulings against nearly 5,500 drug criminals.
Al-Tamimi also noted that authorities have managed to dismantle international networks through information sharing and creating a database with other countries, INA reported.
The chaos and conflicts in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in 2003 have impeded successive Iraqi governments from effectively addressing the threat of drugs.
In May 2023, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani underlined the importance of waging “a war on drugs,” saying that drug dealing remains a major source of funding for terrorism and that the circulation of drugs flourishes in the shadow of terrorism. ■