Iraqi military intelligence officials announced on Thursday that they confiscated 19 trucks loaded with hundreds of thousands of medicines smuggled from the country’s western neighbor, Iran.
Describing it as “the largest drug smuggling operation from Iran,” Iraqi media say the trucks were avoiding main roads in Iraq’s Diyala province to evade customs.
Iraqi authorities have not yet announced the number of suspects arrested or their identification and nationality.
Responding to the news, an adviser to Iran’s Minister of Health, Alireza Vahhabzadeh, told the Iranian Rokna website, “It is unlikely that exceptional drugs” are in the confiscated shipments, and “according to what has been announced, the seized medicines have been purchased from pharmacies” inside Iran.
“Drug smuggling has been going on in Iran for many years,” he said, citing differences in drug prices in Iran and Iraq.
The news of widespread drug trafficking from Iran to Iraq comes after Iranian government officials have sharply criticized the impact of U.S. government sanctions on imports of drugs and medicines’ raw materials to Iran in recent months.