SHARJAH // A crew of 10 on an Iranian ship trying to smuggle people and drugs into the UAE were arrested and their crime thwarted, officials said on Tuesday.
The ship was stopped at Khalid Port in Sharjah and 11.5 kilograms of hashish and 142,725 narcotic pills were seized, along with two people found hiding in a tank in the hull hoping to sneak into the country illegally.
The pair were exhausted because of the lack of oxygen and high temperatures in their hiding place.
Lt Col Ahmed Abdul Aziz, acting director of the Anti-Narcotics Department at Sharjah Police, said the vessel had seemed suspicious, so officials conducted an inspection, which led to the discoveries.
During the investigation, the ship’s captain admitted that the drugs were smuggled by a dealer in Iran, who intended to sell them through drug dealers in the UAE.
Police set up sting operations and caught six dealers in the act of obtaining the drugs, increasing the number of suspects arrested to 16, all of whom have been referred to prosecutors. The ship was also seized.
A team from the Anti-Narcotics Federal Directorate General and the Anti-Narcotics Department at Sharjah Police were behind the swoop.
Col Saeed Abdullah Al Suwaidi, director general of the federal anti-narcotics unit at the Ministry of Interior, said that some of the crew detained were Iranians. He urged the public to cooperate with authorities and report drug dealers by calling 80044 or by sending a text message to 2244.
› Watch the video of the search and arrest here.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
