Capt. Sahir Tahlawi, director general of the Jeddah Islamic Port, told Arab News that port authorities have unearthed smuggling activities of petroleum products at the port.

“Smugglers traffic in diesel fuel, which is usually loaded into fuel trucks. They claim that they are transporting used engine oil. They mix the used oil with diesel fuel and export it to Asian countries like India and the Philippines. Unfortunately, this mixture is sold on the international market as genuine oil, whereas in fact, more than 90 percent of it is diesel. Once the shipment arrives in India, they separate the used engine oil from diesel and sell it as pure diesel.

The price of diesel India is 10 times the price in Saudi Arabia,” he said.

Tahlawi added: “On many occasions, when an export shipment destined for India arrives at the customs department, a sample is taken and tested. When we find that it is mixed with diesel fuel, we stop it, and arrest the smugglers. We then refer them to the authorities for further penal action.”

Meanwhile, 4,965 people suspected of smuggling were questioned and interrogated, because of their involvement in the smuggling of 6 million liters of petroleum products during the period from the beginning of 1433H until the beginning of Juamada II of this year.

Around 181 smuggling cases were registered with the first customs committee, while about 177 cases were listed with the second customs committee. In Jeddah, port authorities recorded 334 cases. Jazan recorded the highest number of case (970), followed by Bat’ha (538) and Dammam (357).

Salih Al-Khlaiwi, director general of the Customs Department, said that there were 10,272 cases registered in various customs areas during the same period, including 2,249 cases at King Abdulaziz Airport in Jeddah and 664 cases in King Abdulaziz Port, among many others.