JEDDAH, 22 June 2006 — Police arrested 15 Asian expatriates from an illegal factory that was involved in the manufacturing and circulation of imitation gold in a densely populated area of Jeddah.
In a raid on the back streets of the Kandara district, police found the factory, which was being used to manufacture fake jewelry from copper using specialist machinery.
The workers at the factory were in the Kingdom without valid residency and work permits and had either overstayed their pilgrimage visas or run away from their sponsors, the police said.
Police were led to the illegal factory after a major investigation. The authorities had recently arrested a number of undocumented workers in the area and noticed some suspicious activities happening in the vicinity close to the factory.
Police seized machinery and a large quantity of copper from the site. Workers would expertly cut and shape the copper for chains, girdles and bangles. Ornaments would then be subjected to a special chemical treatment, which removed impurities and prepared the items for gold plating.
Finished pieces looked like gold and were marketed at cheap prices. According to the police, customers could be easily deceived by the fake jewelry.
Last Monday, officials from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Jeddah Municipality raided an unlicensed factory for readymade dresses.
According to a ministry official, a group of South Asian workers had converted a laundry into a sewing factory.
The officials said in several other raids at various locations across the city, police managed to arrest eight people in relation to drug trafficking and bootlegging offenses.
Police say the raids were effective in gaining further leads in their fight against bootlegging and drug smuggling.
The police also recently managed to arrest 1,033 people who had violated residency regulations in various parts of the city.
