JEDDAH, 21 January 2008 — Saudi anti-drugs police have foiled several attempts to smuggle large quantities of contrabands — including 300,000 Captagon tablets and 160 kilograms of hashish — into the Kingdom last month, said Maj. Ibrahim Abu Hulail, spokesman of the General Directorate for Combating Narcotics.
“Notorious international and local smugglers have been arrested in operations undertaken across the Kingdom, including Riyadh, Jizan, Makkah, Yanbu and Khafji. One of our officers was killed in the line of duty and several others were injured in various operations,” said Abu Hulail, adding that officials have seized around 10,000 Captagon tablets in Makkah and 7,000 in Yanbu, as well as 160 kilograms of hashish in Jizan.
The anti-drugs police conducted the raids with government agencies, customs officials and police in neighboring countries. “Investigations are under way to track down smuggler networks and their sources,” added Abu Hulail.
At a seminar in Dubai last November, Maj. Gen. Othman ibn Nasser Al-Maharaja, chief of the General Directorate for Combating Narcotics, said that with the help and cooperation of anti-narcotic police in Syria, Turkey, Lebanon and other Gulf countries, Saudi Arabia foiled attempts to smuggle huge quantities of drugs into the country. “The new system regulating truck movement across borders has proved effective in minimizing drug smuggling,” he said.
Saudi authorities also receive warnings from the Brussels-based World Customs Organization about international drug pushers that aim to smuggle massive quantities of drugs into the Kingdom.
Drugs such as hashish, opium and Captagon tablets come to the Kingdom from Turkey via Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Sudan.
Bahraini Tourist Jailed in UAE
A Bahraini national was sentenced to four years in prison after he was found hiding a small quantity of hashish in his underwear at Dubai airport, Emirati media reported yesterday.
The 23-year-old tourist confessed to being addicted to hashish after a customs officer found 14.27 grams of the drug hidden in an inner pocket in his underwear.
“A small pouch of a dark substance was secretly hidden inside his underwear. When I confronted him with the findings, he openly said it’s hashish which he carried for personal use,” the customs officer said in his testimony.
