JEDDAH, 11 January — The highway police on the Qassim-Madinah road foiled an attempt to smuggle 37 overstaying expatriates to Riyadh, the Al-Riyadh reported yesterday.
The arrested people were of Arab, Asian and African nationalities. Some were overstayers without valid iqamas (residence permits) while others had entered the country through illegal channels. The illegals were concealed among household furniture’s in the fully-laden vehicle. The driver had taken a high price from the expatriates to smuggle them to Riyadh.
In a separate incident, police detained another driver for a similar offense on the same road. The van was carrying a number of overstaying expats. The driver panicked on seeing the check point and tried to flee. Several patrol cars gave chase and stopped it. On inspecting the van, police found people, most of them overstayers, under seats and some other goods.
In another development, the passport officials in Al-Jouf arrested 160 violators of residence regulations in the past three months, reported Al-Watan.
