11 March 2024 :

An Iraqi court on February 27, 2024 handed down death sentences to five drug dealers, including three foreigners.
"The Central Criminal Court issued a verdict to execute five drug dealers who were convicted of trafficking the narcotic Captagon pills," a statement by the media office of the Supreme Judicial Council said, without specifying the nationalities of the three foreigners.
The statement added that the convicts were transporting narcotic drugs from the central province of Najaf to the southern province of Muthanna before smuggling them to neighboring countries.
Meanwhile, the Directorate of Narcotics Affairs of the Interior Ministry said in a separate statement that the anti-narcotics forces seized 80 kg of narcotic Captagon pills in Iraq's western province of Anbar.
The narcotic drugs were found buried underground after an investigation involving four drug dealers who were arrested by the anti-narcotic forces in the province, the statement added.
The chaos and conflicts that have engulfed the country since the U.S. invasion in 2003 have impeded successive Iraqi governments from effectively addressing the threat of drugs.
In May 2023, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani underlined the importance of waging "a war on drugs," saying drug dealing remains one of the main ways of financing terrorism, and the circulation of drugs flourishes in the shadow of terrorism.