Shafaq News – Baghdad

Iraq’s Military Intelligence Directorate thwarted an attempt to smuggle more than 22,000 narcotic pills using a helium balloon in Al-Anbar province.

The directorate said in a statement on Saturday that the seized drugs were handed over to the Anti-Narcotics Directorate in accordance with legal procedures.

A security source told Shafaq News that the smuggling attempt originated from the Syrian side and was foiled in the bordering Iraqi province of Al-Anbar.

Iraq has emerged as both a transit corridor and a growing consumer market for narcotics, with captagon and methamphetamine trafficking rising sharply in recent years.

Read more: Captagon Empire: How Syria fuels a $2B regional drug trade