Iraqi officials intensify efforts to combat smuggling at borders
10,000 Iraqi dinar bills. Photo: AFP
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – Just this past week, Iraqi border authorities successfully prevented an attempt to unlawfully transport substantial sums of money at the al-Qaim border with Syria.
Two individuals were apprehended as part of the Iraqi authorities’ crackdown on the smuggling of currency across the border.
Reports from Iraqi state media indicate that approximately 26 million Iraqi dinars (equivalent to around $19,800), $40,000 in US dollars, and 10,000 Australian dollars were confiscated from the two suspects who were attempting to cross the border. Security forces took the two individuals into custody.
The suspects, whose names have still not yet been released, had apparently concealed the money “in a skillful manner” and refrained from disclosing the amount they were attempting to take out of the country.
Iraq has faced challenges in curbing the outflow of dollars from the country, with suspicions that these funds are being smuggled into neighboring countries.
In recent years, efforts have been made to bolster security along the Iraqi-Syrian border to prevent the infiltration of fighters from the Islamic State group.
More recently, the al-Qaim border crossing has also transformed into a transit point for illegal narcotics, particularly captagon pills, being smuggled from Syria into Iraq.
In recent months, Iraqi security forces have intensified their efforts against narcotics, leading to the successful confiscation of significant quantities of drugs. Just this last March, officials discovered three million illegal pills hidden inside crates of apples on a truck as it crossed the border.
The border crossing is located between Iraq’s Anbar desert region and Syria’s Deir ez-Zor province.