US troops and Iraqi police destroy marijuana field in northern Iraq
Soldiers from the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team and Iraqi police found a field of juvenile marijuana plants in northern Iraq in early July 2006 and cut it down. The owner, who claimed he was growing sesame, was arrested; police put the crop's value at $2 million.
US troops and Iraqi police seized and destroyed a bumper crop of marijuana plants in northern Iraq in early July 2006, acting on a US military press release reported by Stars and Stripes.[1]Soldiers from the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, responsible for most of northern Iraq, discovered the field at an undisclosed location.[1]
The field held juvenile marijuana plants grown in a series of furrows, and the owner claimed he was growing sesame.[1]Police put the value of the field at $2 million.[1]The crop was cut down and destroyed, and the owner was arrested.[1]
A wartime first
Drug use and trafficking were rare under Saddam Hussein, but the chaos since the 2003 invasion increased drug use and made the country more attractive to smugglers, the account notes.[1]Hamid Ghodse, head of the International Narcotics Control Board, told the BBC that weakened border controls turn countries into convenient transit points for traffickers as well as militants.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
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.
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.
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.
Basra Criminal Court sentenced a man to death after finding him guilty of drug trafficking involving hashish and methamphetamine. The Supreme Judicial Council announced the sentence on 27 October 2026 without giving a weight for either substance.