Four arrested as Kirkuk team seizes 20 kg hashish abroad
Kirkuk narcotics officers infiltrated a trafficking network in a neighbouring country, arresting four members after luring the first suspect. They seized 20 kg of hashish in the intelligence-led operation outside Iraq.
🇮🇶 An unnamed neighbouring country of Iraq
Arrested
4
Cannabis
20 kg
Kirkuk’s narcotics affairs directorate, which belongs to the General Directorate
for Narcotics Affairs, said its detachments successfully infiltrated a network
trading in narcotic substances inside one of the neighbouring countries.[1]
The directorate described the effort as a tightly planned, high-quality
operation that started by luring one of the network’s members.[1] Officers
caught that member red-handed inside that country’s territory.[2] The first
suspect’s confessions and the intelligence information he provided led the
executing force to uncover the network’s remaining branches and overthrow its
three other members.[1] In total, the force arrested all four members of the
network and seized 20 kilograms of hashish.[1]
It presented the operation as embodying the directorate’s ability to pursue
international trafficking networks and dismantle their rings beyond Iraq’s
borders.[1] It credited precise intelligence work and joint coordination,
stressing that pursuing traffickers does not stop at the limits of geography and
that the law reaches them wherever their activity extends.[1]
The articles give no separate date for the operation; 3 November 2026 is the publication date of both outlets and is used as the incident date.
The neighbouring country where the arrests and seizure occurred was not named.
The names, nationalities and legal status of the four arrested people, and any charges or court outcome, were not published.
Both outlets reproduce the same narcotics-directorate statement, with no independent weighing or custody record published.
The pages carry headline images captioned only with the headline, which does not establish that they show this seizure, so no media entry is included.
A similar 20 kg seizure in a neighbouring country by the same Kirkuk directorate was reported on 13 August 2026, and a 20 kg seizure was mentioned in 2 November 2026 nine-ton coverage; the similar weight and unnamed country leave a possible overlap, but the 3 November accounts' four arrests and luring method distinguish this event.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in السومرية: The directorate announced the intelligence operation on Tuesday as the work of Kirkuk narcotics detachments in a neighbouring state.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in السومرية: It said intelligence efforts to pursue trafficking networks and dismantle them continue inside Iraq and outside it.
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.
The Basra criminal court sentenced a man to death under Article 27(1) of the 2017 drug law after large quantities of methamphetamine and hashish were found in his possession for sale. The Supreme Judicial Council announced the judgment on 27 October 2026. Article 27(1) is one of the law's trafficking provisions and carries death or life imprisonment.
The Basra Criminal Court sentenced a foreign national to death for drug trafficking after 10 kilograms and 50 grams of hashish intended for sale were seized. The judgment was issued under Article 27(First) of Iraq's 2017 narcotics law, which carries death or life imprisonment.
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.