Those arrested included a truck driver and two Arab expatriates. Police, acting on a tip-off, made the arrests while the drugs, which were hidden inside cartons, were being offloaded.

Eight police units led by Lt. Col. Rashid Al-Mohaini, commander of patrol police in Makkah, and Maj. Marzouk Al-Zayedi were involved in the bust.

The drugs were hidden inside 128 cartons, said a police source. Initial investigation showed that the truck came from Jordan and that the driver was supposed to unload the cartons in Jeddah.

“When the driver reached Jeddah, he was asked to take the cartons to Makkah. A person was continuously in touch with the driver,” said the source.

He said the arrested Arab expatriates were inside the rest house where the driver unloaded the cartons. Officers also found a motorbike and plastic bags apparently used to peddle the drugs. A record of the drugs seized has been made in order to hand them over to the Department for Combating Drugs.

The Kingdom announced in March 2009 the arrest of more than 35 suspected drug traffickers, including 13 Saudis, accused of trying to smuggle 1,768 kilograms of hashish and 3.4 million amphetamine tablets into the Kingdom.

The Interior Ministry seized 8.3 million tablets with a street value of SR292 million in an attempt last December. The pills were hidden inside tires loaded on to a truck.

Customs officers at the northern border point of Hudaitha seized 1.021 million tablets in February this year, said the Interior Ministry. Smugglers had hidden one million tablets in bags on a truck and 21,000 tablets in a gas cylinder, said Zaayed bin Atallah Al-Zaayed, director of customs in Hudaitha.