RIYADH: Two Pakistani workers have been arrested in two related attempts by a criminal syndicate to smuggle banned drugs into the Kingdom, the Ministry of Interior said Sunday.

In a statement on its website, the ministry said a total of seven kilograms of raw heroin were seized in the twin drug bust conducted jointly by Saudi and United Arab Emirates anti-narcotics operatives.

It said that in the first incident, agents found five kilograms of the raw heroin embedded on the roof of a truck bound for Riyadh and driven by a Pakistani national.

The arrest led to the seizure of another shipment of two kilograms of raw heroin, also hidden in the roof of another truck and driven by another Pakistani.

“In light of cooperation from our UAE counterparts following this network, the smuggling of a second similar shipment was thwarted,” the MOI statement said.

An Interior Ministry report in early December said that security forces have seized over four million pills of amphetamines, four tons of hashish and around three kilograms of raw heroin in October and November 2014 alone, with 392 arrested.

Ministry spokesperson Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki had said 103 of the arrested suspects were Saudis and the remaining 289 belong to 26 different nationalities.

Between mid-October and December 31 last year Saudi Arabia executed 13 Pakistanis for drug smuggling.