26 Oil smuggling suspects arrested, 80% inspecting teams are replaced

INA – BAGHDAD
 
Energy Police Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior announced on Wednesday, the arrest of 26 suspects involved in smuggling operations of oil derivatives, as it revealed the replacement of 80% of the employees assigned to inspect tankers.
 
"The Directorate carried out in the last 21 days a series of qualitative operations against the smuggling of oil derivatives, during which 6 of them containing 17 tanks were seized and 26 accused were arrested," said the Director General of the Energy Police, Major General Dhafir Nadhmi, to Al-Iraqiya News TV, followed up by the Iraqi News Agency – INA.
 
He added, "The Directorate is currently carrying out operations in Basra against violators of oil taboos. All operations are carried out in coordination between the Energy Police, the Federal Intelligence Directorate and the National Security Agency."
 
"In the recent operations, 18 suspects belonging to the security services were also arrested, between an officer and a member. There are still 14 others on the run, and arrest warrants have been issued against them, as the work is ongoing to reach, arrest and investigate them in addition to the matter jointly between the Ministry of Interior and the National Security Agency,” he explained.
 
Nadhmi pointed out that "there is a coordination center with the KRG to follow up on the file of derivatives smuggling, based in the Ministry of Interior in Baghdad, in which information is exchanged and operations are carried out in coordination between the two parties," adding, "the tanks used in smuggling take unpaved streets, and this does not prevent them from being tracked and pursued. There are also tanks whose owners coordinate with corrupt members of the security services on the main roads.”
 
"In light of this, 80% of the ones on the main roads who were carrying out the task of inspecting the tanks were replaced. It is the fact that corruption is the main reason behind the smuggling operations,” he added.
 
In regard to the reason that made Basra and Diyala at the forefront of the provinces from which the derivatives tanks are launched with the aim of smuggling, Nadhmi commented, “Basra is the first oil province in Iraq with Diyala, the procedures were weak in them, and also most of the fields and facilities in Diyala were exposed to the control of terrorist gangs, previously.”