Various attempts to smuggle drugs in the regions of Jazan, Najran, Asir, and Tabuk have been thwarted, the official spokesman of the General Directorate of Border Guard Colonel Misfer bin Ghannam Al-Quraini said.
Attempts to smuggle 296kg of the narcotic khat, 230kg of hashish, 334,000 amphetamine tablets, 278g of opium and 1.8g of cocaine were foiled, Saudi Press Agency reported.
30 smugglers were apprehended including 16 Saudi nationals and 14 foreigners of Ethiopian, Somali, Eritrean, and Egyptian nationality.
After the initial legal procedures against them were completed, the smugglers were handed over to the authorities.
The General Directorate of Narcotics Control revealed on Wednesday (june 18) that it has foiled an attempt to smuggle more than 3.5 million amphetamine pills, which were found hidden in a shipment of building materials at Jeddah Islamic Port.
The Saudi Ministry of Interior said that three Turkish suspects were arrested, two of whom are residents in the Kingdom. The third had arrived in the country on a visitor’s visa. They have been referred to the Public Prosecution. The operation was carried out in cooperation with the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority, the ministry added.
Last month, Saudi authorities thwarted a similar plot to smuggle more than 403,000 pills and arrested two suspects. In that case, Maj. Mohammed Al-Nujaidi, spokesperson for the General Directorate of Narcotics Control, said security officials who monitor drug smuggling and distribution networks that target the Kingdom found the pills in Jeddah, hidden in a shipment of fake, plastic bean pods. A Syrian national and a Saudi citizen in Jeddah were referred to the Public Prosecution in connection with the case, he added.
The Ministry of Interior’s security forces continue to work with the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority to uncover plots to smuggle narcotics into the Kingdom and catch those responsible, Al-Nujaidi said.
