Iraq's oil police raid four smuggling sites in four governorates, arrests five

Shafaq News/ Iraqi Oil Police apprehended smugglers in different Iraqi governorates in an uphill battle the Iraqi state is waging against oil thieves operating throughout the country.

An official statement said the oil police forces raided four smuggling sites in Nineveh, al-Anbar, Basra, and Babel over the past 24 hours.

"Four persons were arrested and twenty tankers were seized," the statement said.

On June 22, Iraq's national security agency was charged with the oil smuggling file and granted wide-scale powers to combat this phenomenon.