Iraq intercepts 46 kg of drugs smuggled by balloons

Shafaq News– Al-Anbar

Iraqi border forces foiled two attempts to smuggle narcotics into the country using airborne balloons along the western border of Al-Anbar province, the Border Forces Command revealed on Sunday.

In a statement, the command said the balloons were carrying a combined 46 kilograms of drugs, 37 kg in the first attempt and 9 kg in the second, totaling about 262,000 pills.

Smugglers recently turned to airborne balloons to move drugs across Iraq’s borders, particularly along Syrian and Jordanian routes, to evade direct contact with border patrols, Brig. Gen. Akram Al-Rashid, director of Al-Anbar’s Anti-Narcotics Directorate, told Shafaq News in November 2025.

A similar attempt was thwarted late last year, when Iraqi forces downed a balloon carrying 30 kilograms of narcotics along the same stretch of the Al-Anbar border.

The Interior Ministry estimated in November that security forces had dismantled 1,200 local and international drug networks and seized more than 14 tons of narcotics over the past three years.

Read more: The Smuggler's Almanac: Iraq's war against narco-innovation