JEDDAH: Law enforcement authorities foiled two attempts to smuggle nearly 8 million amphetamine pills and arrested three Saudis, one Yemeni and a Turk involved in the smuggling operation.

Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki said that two attempts to smuggle 7,846,550 amphetamines pills, professionally hidden in equipment and devices exported to the Kingdom in two trucks were foiled.

The first truck, with 5,419,750 amphetamines pills hidden in a carpet-making machine, was seized in Tabuk. He said the second truck with 2,426,800 pills hidden in washing and date packaging machines was seized in Riyadh.

Meanwhile, in Alkhobar, a highly imaginative attempt to smuggle 156 wine bottles into the Kingdom through the King Fahd Causeway was foiled by the Customs Department.

The bottles were artfully concealed inside four boxes at the bottom of the bodywork of a car that came through the Customs, said Dhaifallah Al-Otaibi, director of Customs at the King Fahd Causeway.

— With input from Sultan Al-Sughair