JEDDAH: The Kingdom seized a huge haul of drugs besides firearms and made 1,461 arrests during operations against banned substances in the last six months, the Interior Ministry has said.

Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, the ministry’s spokesman, said security men foiled several smuggling operations, confiscating 24 million narcotic pills, 19 tons of hashish and 4 kg of heroin. “Among those arrested were 512 Saudis and 949 suspects of 38 other nationalities,” he said.

During the operations, 14 soldiers, three drugs smugglers and nine others were injured, said Al-Turki.

“Also confiscated were 15 machine guns, same number of rifles, 99 pistols, a hand grenade and 5,245 bullets, besides SR30 million.”

The operations were largely due to cooperation from neighboring countries, he added.