A Saudi customs officer documents a seized shipment of Captagon pills disguised as pomegranates, sent from Lebanon, at the port in Jeddah last year. Photo: AP
A Saudi customs officer documents a seized shipment of Captagon pills disguised as pomegranates, sent from Lebanon, at the port in Jeddah last year. Photo: AP
A Saudi customs officer documents a seized shipment of Captagon pills disguised as pomegranates, sent from Lebanon, at the port in Jeddah last year. Photo: AP
A Saudi customs officer documents a seized shipment of Captagon pills disguised as pomegranates, sent from Lebanon, at the port in Jeddah last year. Photo: AP

Saudi Arabia seized 37 tonnes of illegal drugs and 234,000 bottles of alcohol in 2021


Ismaeel Naar
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Saudi Arabia seized more than 37 tonnes of illegal drugs last year, as well as 190 million pieces of the highly addictive Captagon pills, figures released by the kingdom’s customs authority show.

The haul included hashish, heroin, cocaine, qat and other narcotics. In addition, authorities seized more than 234,000 bottles and 4,155 litres of smuggled alcohol.

The campaign against drugs came as part of the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority's mission to “protect society, support the national economy and improve international trade,” a Saudi Press Agency report said.

The authority operates 41 customs ports around the Kingdom, using modern security techniques, sniffer dogs and other methods to detect contraband.

"The record in 2021 demonstrates success in tightening customs control over imports and exports, as well as combating smuggling in all its forms,” the authority said in a statement.

Captagon – a synthetic amphetamine first developed in the 1960s as a treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – has become one of the most widely used drugs among young substance abusers in Saudi Arabia.

Lebanon and Syria are the biggest sources of Captagon tablets in the kingdom, but some of the pills that make it are manufactured in Jordan, where the authorities in 2018 dismantled a laboratory producing the drug.

Last April, Saudi Arabia issued a ban on fresh produce shipments from Lebanon after what it said was a surge in the number of attempts to smuggle drugs from Beirut and inadequate security checks by Lebanese security forces.

Soon after, other Gulf countries supported the Saudi move and threatened to impose similar measures.

Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Updated: January 09, 2022, 9:02 AM`