Iraqi border guards — using training and equipment provided by U.S. forces — seized around 50 kilos of heroin that traffickers were trying to smuggle into the country from Syria, the U.S. military said late Tuesday.
The seizure was reportedly made on Friday. Although U.S. officials did not say whom they believed the traffickers worked for, money raised in the drug trade and other criminal enterprises has long been used to fund the insurgency in Iraq.
According to the news release, the drugs were discovered hidden in a BMW sedan. Border guards noticed "irregularities" while performing an X-ray scan on the car and took a closer look.
The driver of the vehicle allegedly offered a customs officer a $10,000 bribe to ignore the find, but was apparently refused.
Officials with the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq, which trains and equips Iraqi forces, said the seizure resulted from cooperation among the border security forces, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Border Support Team 12 and a transition team assigned to the port of entry in western Iraq.