Shafaq News- Baghdad

Iraq’s National Security Service arrested the main drug dealer responsible for bringing narcotics into prisons, along with nine other suspects in Basra, while seizing 651 mobile phones and 314 SIM cards during inspection campaigns at several Iraqi prisons on Monday.

The service said its teams, working with the Justice Ministry’s Iraqi Correctional Service, carried out large-scale searches at several prisons. “The mobile phones and SIM cards were hidden in various locations inside the targeted facilities.”

In January 2026, authorities announced the release of nearly 16,000 inmates from its prisons in 2025. According to the Ministry of Justice, 10,931 of those freed were covered by the General Amnesty Law, while another 4,983 were released through other judicial decisions.