DON’T SHOOT: Smugglers surrender to police at an undisclosed location. (SPA)

JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia yesterday announced the arrest of more than 35 suspected drug traffickers including 13 Saudi suspects accused of trying to smuggle 1,768 kilograms of hashish and 3.4 million amphetamine tablets into the Kingdom.

Authorities believe these men were part of four drug networks operating in different parts of the country.

One of the groups had documents showing financial transactions worth SR406 million ($108 million), the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said, quoting a statement from the Interior Ministry. The group is also accused of attempting to steal and export cars, and police said they seized 23 of them, SPA said.

“The arrest of these criminals took place as a result of the vigilance of security agencies and their monitoring of activities aimed at selling drugs and money laundering,” Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, spokesman of the ministry, said. He reiterated the government’s resolve to combat drugs and drug dealers, who target the Kingdom’s young population.

Speaking about the first gang, Al-Turki said: “This local gang, which had contacts with foreign parties, brought a large number of banned Captagon pills for distribution in different parts of the Kingdom.” (Captagon is the commercial name for fenethylline, an anti-depressant that metabolizes into amphetamine and which became illegal in most countries in the 1980s. Counterfeit versions of this drug are commonly trafficked in the Middle East and may contain other illicit ingredients.)

The gang comprised 19 people — seven Saudis and 12 non-Saudi Arabs.

Police seized from this gang two million Captagon pills that were readied for sale among young men and women in addition to SR5.88 million cash as well as 13 vehicles, the spokesman said.

Preliminary investigations showed that this gang had transferred SR406 million in internal and external bank accounts.

The second gang, including six Saudis and six foreigners, tried to smuggle 903.7 kilograms of hashish into the Kingdom in addition to 450,000 Captagon pills.

“These drugs were on their way to the Kingdom but security officers were able to arrest the smugglers and seize the drugs,” Al-Turki said.

Security officers raided three hide-outs of the smugglers and seized 343 kilograms of hashish, bringing the total amount of hashish busted from the second gang to 1,246 kilograms.

In this third drug bust, Al-Turki said, police seized 1.95 million Captagon pills and arrested a numbers of foreigners involved in their sales. The fourth gang tried to smuggle more than 500 kilograms of hashish into the Kingdom, he said.