JEDDAH, 11 August 2006 — Custom officials at the Jeddah Islamic Port arrested members of a bootlegging gang comprising two Arab expatriates, a Danish national and an Indonesian who smuggled large quantities of alcohol into the Kingdom and even paid a bribe to custom officials, reported the Al-Riyadh newspaper.
For the last nine months, authorities at the port had been monitoring the activities of an Arab expatriate based in Saudi Arabia who was importing clothes from the UAE in conjunction with a British national there. When custom officials opened a recent consignment, imported by the Arab expatriate, they found a large number of bottles of alcohol hidden inside. Seeing that he had been found out the man offered officials a SR200,000 bribe, who then allowed the man to take the goods.
Officials then secretly followed the man to a house in Jeddah, where other members of the bootlegging gang were waiting for the consignment. Custom officials raided the house and arrested the gang, which included a Dane, a Palestinian and an Indonesian.
