KUWAIT CITY, 9 September 2004 — Kuwaiti police have arrested five international smugglers with 176 kilograms (387 pounds) of hashish after exchanging gunfire with them, the KUNA news agency yesterday quoted an official statement as saying.
The operation came after contacts with Bahraini anti-drugs authorities and following close monitoring of the ring’s members in the emirate, the statement added without saying if anyone was injured in the bust.
Kuwaiti police arrest hundreds of drug traffickers every year, mostly from Pakistan and Iran.
The emirate made its biggest drugs bust ever in May when customs officers seized 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of heroin in a container shipped from Pakistan.
Figures from the National Committee for Combating Drugs made public in August last year showed that 1,716 men and women had died of drug abuse in Kuwait since 1991.
