The Baghdad Operations Command said a security force arrested a three-member drug-trafficking gang in the Bayaa district, south of Baghdad, on Sunday 21 January 2018.[1] A security source told Kurdistan 24 that the group had three members and was led by Jawad Luay al-Yasiri, the son of the governor of Najaf.[1] Najaf governor Luay al-Yasiri said his son had gone to Baghdad two days earlier with two friends, one of whom was under security surveillance and carrying a bag of drugs.[2] The governor said the bag held an estimated 5.8 kilograms of drugs and 1,000 pills, and that his son denied any connection to it because the bag belonged to a friend.[2]

Activists posted pictures of six kilos of cannabis, 800 narcotic pills, forged identity cards and weapons that Iraqi security had seized.[1] The pictures showed official access cards for the intelligence service, the Iraqi cabinet and Najaf province, all in the name of Jawad Luay Jawad, and one designating him a lieutenant.[1] The governor called for the case to be handled with full impartiality regardless of the accused’s identity, and said he suspected a political smear campaign ahead of the May elections.[1] The governor said some websites had doubled the amounts seized, and that the badges found with his son included a vehicle-driving permit, a governorate pass for his job there and a shrine pass.[2]

Interior Minister Qasim al-Araji ordered the officers who arrested the three suspects honoured, and the officials who leaked pictures of the accused and the incident report to be detained.[3] On 11 March 2018 the Karkh Criminal Court in Baghdad sentenced Jawad Luay al-Yasiri to life in prison and a fine of 30 million Iraqi dinars on charges of drug dealing and transport.[3] A judicial source said the son of governor Luay al-Yasiri had been caught red-handed smuggling six kilograms of drugs and 800 other narcotic pills into Baghdad, at the Bayaa police station.[3] The Karkh Criminal Court said in a statement that it sentenced Jawad Luay al-Yasiri to life in prison after convicting him of possessing narcotics in Baghdad, and fined him 30 million dinars.[4]