Drug smuggling bids foiled in Jeddah, Riyadh

JEDDAH: Anti-narcotics teams in Riyadh seized 680,000 methamphetamine pills in two separate operations over the past two days and arrested five people for their involvement in the smuggling and trading in drugs.
On a tip-off that a large quantity of drug pills were in the process of being distributed in Riyadh, an Anti-Narcotics Department team raided the location, arresting three people and hauling up over 424,000 amphetamine pills that were hidden in cavities of metal objects.
Those arrested included three Saudi nationals and two Syrians.
In another operation, anti-narcotics officials arrested two Syrian nationals who were found in possession of a coffee grinding equipment in which 257,200 pills of methamphetamine were hidden.
The King Abdulaziz International Airport customs officials meanwhile foiled six attempts this week to smuggle drugs, including more than two kilograms of heroin, according to a senior airport official.
The drugs were being transported on Monday by three persons who came into the Kingdom through the airport.
Some of the drugs were hidden in capsules that were extracted from the stomach of one of the smugglers, some were found in a cavity in one traveler’s shoes and others were stowed in a food box in one of the smuggler’s bags.
Director General of Customs at King Abdulaziz Airport Bandar Al-Rehaily said that the department also aborted an attempt to smuggle more than 24,000 Captagon pills that were found hidden under one passenger’s belt. The pills had been concealed under black bags.
Al-Rehaily added that 317 grams of cocaine were retrieved from a passenger’s stomach.
Customs officers also foiled an attempt to smuggle 1.951 kilograms of the banned shabow (methamphetamine) found hidden in one passenger’s bag.
Al-Rehaily said that the foiled attempts are proof of the Saudi Customs’ relentless efforts to prevent the entry of all prohibited materials into the Kingdom.
Earlier on Jan. 19, the anti-narcotics teams in Riyadh had arrested eight members of a cell, of different nationalities, found in possession of 400,000 pills of methamphetamine.