Iraqi forces kill drug smuggler in Maysan, International dealer sentenced to death in Najaf

Shafaq News/ On Thursday, the Ministry of Interior announced that Iraqi Border Guards killed a drug smuggler and wounded another in a firefight in the Hawizeh Marshes, Maysan province.

In a statement, the ministry reported that the 10th Border Brigade, part of the 3rd Border Region Command, killed one smuggler and arrested another after injuring him during an armed confrontation in the marshes, which fall within Maysan’s administrative boundaries.

The statement added that the forces recovered one Kalashnikov rifle and two pistols from the smugglers.

In a related development, a security source in Najaf province reported that a court sentenced an international drug dealer to death by hanging for smuggling one million narcotic pills into Iraq and trafficking some of them to Kuwait.

The source told Shafaq News that "the Najaf Criminal Court issued a death sentence for the dealer after he was convicted of bringing in the drugs from Syria, distributing part of the shipment in Iraq, and smuggling the remainder to Kuwait through Basra province."

The verdict was issued following Article 27 of the 2017 Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Control Law.