3 foreigners held as Iraq seizes 90 kg hashish offshore
Iraqi forces intercepted a smuggling boat in territorial waters after 24 hours of surveillance, seizing 90 kg of hashish. Three foreign nationals were detained while a fourth suspect escaped and is being sought.
🇮🇶 Iraqi territorial waters · Iraq
·
Arrested
3
Cannabis
90 kg
Agencies
General Directorate of Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Affairs, Iraqi naval forces +1
Iraq’s Interior Ministry said authorities foiled an attempted drug-smuggling run
through the country’s territorial waters.[1]Security forces intercepted a
boat they had monitored for 24 hours and detained three foreign nationals on
board.[1]A fourth suspect escaped during the raid, and authorities said
search operations were continuing to locate him.[1]
Officers seized90 kilograms of hashish in the offshore operation.[1]The
operation was conducted by the General Directorate of Narcotics and Psychotropic
Substances Affairs in coordination with Iraqi naval forces and military
intelligence.[1]The ministry said the operation was launched following
cross-border intelligence provided by a neighbouring country.[1]
The three detained foreigners were not named, and no charges or court outcome
for them was reported.[1]Years of instability and conflict since the 2003
US-led invasion have complicated Iraq’s anti-trafficking efforts, and the
government has said drug smuggling remains a major source of financing for
terrorism.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Arrested
3
Cannabis
90 kg
Agencies
General Directorate of Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Affairs; Iraqi naval forces; military intelligence
Agency type
Anti-narcotics agency, Military
Cannabis
Hashish (90 kg)
Activity
Smuggling
Setting
Port or sea
Case stage
Under investigation
Date
Publication date
Sources
News.aznews.azIraq busts offshore drug smuggling attempt, detains 3 foreigners
Open questions the AI reported
The ministry statement gives no separate date for the interception, so 7 October 2026, the publication date of this report, stands in for the incident date.
Only one account of this interception could be opened, retelling an Interior Ministry statement via Shafaq News and Xinhua, so no independent account confirms the figures.
The three detained foreigners were not named and their nationalities were not given.
No charges, court hearing or other outcome for the detainees was reported.
The fate of the fourth suspect who escaped and the outcome of the continuing search were not reported.
The neighbouring country that provided intelligence was not named, and the boat's origin and destination were not given.
The article also describes a separate western-desert interception of about 250,000 narcotic pills, a different non-cannabis event left out of this report.
Iraq's Drug Affairs Directorate arrested two suspects in Salah al-Din governorate on 11 November 2026 and seized one kilogram of hashish. The directorate said the operation followed confirmed intelligence and field surveillance.
Iraqi intelligence supported joint operations with seven states that seized about nine tons of mixed drugs including hashish. A separately reported 20 kg of marijuana was seized in one unnamed neighbouring country with Iraqi specialist teams.
Iraq's interior ministry said anti-narcotics forces dismantled an international smuggling network in Iraqi territorial waters, seizing 90 kg of hashish and two boats and arresting three suspects including a foreign national. The 16-hour mission from Umm Qasr naval base, announced on 15 August 2026, was described as the first operation of its kind in the depths of Iraq's waters.
The interior ministry said security forces broke up 1,201 trafficking and dealing networks, including 171 international ones, and seized 14 tonnes of narcotics in the three years to November 2025. It counted 23,118 court judgments in drug cases, among them 300 death sentences and 1,147 life sentences, and said 6,022 people had recovered from addiction while 1,228 were in treatment at 16 centres.