On patrol with the Dubai Customs airport drug squad

Officers see rise in cannabis vape pods, smuggled gold thread woven into clothes, and even stamps laced with LSD in the fight against narcotics

The overall tide of counterfeit goods into the country – and Dubai in particular – is swelling.

A Dubai Customs inspector uses a special canine unit to search for drugs in an unloaded shipment in Jebel Ali Port. Sarah Dea / The National

Counterfeit parts and goods seized by Dubai Customs in Jebel Ali Port in Dubai. Sarah Dea / The National

Workers unload shipments for inspection at Dubai Customs in Jebel Ali Port. Sarah Dea / The National

A Dubai Customs inspector uses a special instrument to detect radioactive material in a shipment container in Jebel Ali Port. Sarah Dea / The National

Counterfeit designer goods seized by Dubai Customs in Jebel Ali Port. Sarah Dea / The National

Dubai Customs inspectors manually sort through a shipment after x-raying it to look for contraband or inconsistencies in Jebel Ali Port in Dubai. Sarah Dea / The National

Counterfeit utensils, lighting parts and cooking equipment seized by Dubai Customs in Jebel Ali Port. Sarah Dea / The National

Counterfeit cigarettes and weapons seized by Dubai Customs in Jebel Ali Port in Dubai. Sarah Dea / The National

Dubai Customs inspectors swab a shipment to detect explosive residue from a shipment unloaded in Jebel Ali Port. Sarah Dea / The National

Counterfeit designer goods seized by Dubai Customs in Jebel Ali Port in Dubai. Sarah Dea / The National

Dubai Customs inspectors use a scope camera to check the fuel tank of a lorry for any suspicious materials in Jebel Ali Port. Sarah Dea / The National

Heroin hidden in wheelchairs, vape pods containing CBD oil, LSD-laced stamps, marijuana concealed in crisp packets and gold woven into clothes. These were among the most bizarre seizures made by customs officers at Dubai International Airport this year.

Officials made 131 seizures while processing more than two million passengers and four million bags during the first three months of 2021.

Attempts to smuggle nearly 56kg of drugs were foiled, with cocaine, heroin and marijuana among the substances seized. A total of 3,950 illegal pills were also found.

Contraband has been hidden in food boxes, wheelchairs, wigs, almonds, spices, oil bottles and honey jars

Faisal Al Shurafa,
Dubai customs

Every day, customs officers observe passengers’ behaviour and body language to profile suspects. Passengers are then searched using advanced equipment to identify suspicious objects.

Methods used to conceal goods have become more ingenious, said senior inspection officer Faisal Al Shurafa.

“Contraband has been hidden in food boxes, wheelchairs, wigs, almonds, spices, oil bottles and honey jars,” said Mr Al Shurafa, who has been with Dubai Customs for 14 years.

Occasionally, those bringing in illegal items will hide them underneath religious books.

“This is to give inspectors an impression they are God-fearing people who wouldn’t smuggle illegal items,” he said.

Mr Al Shurafa recalled a case in which a passenger had not been pulled aside to be searched. Instead he confessed upon seeing the customs officers in uniform.

“He willingly approached us and handed a small amount of drugs he brought for personal use.”

Mr Al Shurafa explained that having seen his fair share of smuggling attempts over the years, the number one method is hiding contraband inside luggage, followed by concealing it inside passengers’ bodies.

“The strangest so far was the drugs concealed in hollowed out almonds,” he said.

“Almond bags were the only items inside the passenger’s bags. When our colleague held one almond it cracked in his hand and he discovered the drugs.”

“Criminals never stop getting more creative with their methods for smuggling, but we also continue to train so that no method is too hard for us,” Mr Al Shurafa said.

Another passenger was arriving on holiday with his family and had packed large amounts of drugs to sell while in Dubai.

“The funny part about this case is that his wife told us all about his illegal activity smuggling and selling drugs.”

Officials say that when reading body language, it is important to focus on the eyes.

“If doing something illegal, the eyes will give one away and when we see that, we start focusing on movements that are out of place, like cracking fingers or such,” he said.

Passengers will then be approached and politely questioned.

“We ask normal questions, like ‘How are you?’ and ‘How was your trip?’, but we can tell if something is not right from the way a person answers.”

“It’s a huge challenge because given the number of passengers, I have only five seconds to detect suspicious individuals.”

Inspector Zaid Ali Al Shehhi, 28, specialises in detecting smuggled gold. He said sometimes people will declare it in the hope they will not be searched.

Mr Al Shehhi has also caught travellers hiding gold inside bottles, melting it into strips and wrapping it around their bodies or sewing it into their clothes.

“One passenger wrapped around one kilogram of molten gold around his body.”

Officers receive a lot of training on the types of drugs and illegal materials that might be smuggled into the country, and the various methods that criminals might use to evade detection.

“They are trained on how to use advanced equipment, read body language, analyse data and tell original products from fake ones,” said Khamees Al Muhairi, senior manager of Dubai Customs’ learning department.

Last year, customs officers underwent 8,994 hours of training and took 158 online courses.

Smugglers caught in the act: in pictures

US Customs arrested this Fly Jamaica Airways cabin crew attendant, who was found to have 4kg of cocaine strapped to his legs and concealed under tights and trousers. The haul at New York's JFK Airport would have been worth about $160,000 on the street. Photo: US Customs and Border Protection

Police in Bogata, Colombia arrested this Canadian woman for trying to smuggle 2kg of cocaine on to a Canada-bound flight in September, 2013. The woman pretended to be pregnant and hid the drugs in a latex belly. AFP

This spectacularly conspicuous attempt to smuggle €30,000 of cocaine ended in arrest for a Colombian passenger in July, 2019. The man, 65, concealed one kilo of the illicit powder by gluing it to his head. He was caught when police noticed the height of his black toupee, when his flight from Bogota landed in Barcelona. Photo: Policia Nacional

Australian customs officers foiled this attempt to smuggle the party drug ecstasy into the country, concealed in a Mr Potato Head toy. Officers at Sydney International Mail Centre cracked open the Toy Story figurine and found 293g of the drug in October, 2007. AFP

Portuguese police released this image of multicoloured swim trunks with two brown rubber bags — supposed to look like buttocks — attached. The passenger who was wearing them was caught at the airport in Lisbon, off a flight from Belem in northern Brazil in February 2018. The fake buttocks contained enough cocaine for 5,000 doses. Photo: Portuguese National Police

Guatemalan smugglers were found to have scooped out the cream filling of dozens of vanilla wafers and replaced it with wraps of cocaine. US Customs and Border Protection arrested the Guatemalan passenger carrying them at George Bush Airport in Houston in April 2015. The nearly 2 kilos of cocaine would have a street value of more than $60,000. AP

Few airports in the world will let you through security without removing your shoes, due to the threat from terrorism and to tackle drug smuggling. Australian Customs discovered nearly half a kilo of heroin in the hollowed out soles of these shoes. AFP

Customs officers at Dubai's main airport foiled 155 attempts to smuggle 'talismans and black magic items', related to witchcraft and sorcery, in 2015. Officers said criminals take advantage of often vulnerable people with superstitions. Photo: Dubai Customs

In August 2019, 755kg of methamphetamine was found hidden under frozen cow hide from Mexico. The crystal meth was wrapped in aluminium foil and sandwiched among 18 pallets of hide that arrived in Sydney aboard a shipping container marked 'Salty Bovine Skin'. AFP

Crystal meth wraps are removed from inside hollowed out hardwood flooring at a warehouse in near Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, in April, 2017. The haul had been shipped from China and had a street value of $681m. AFP

London-based seafood salesman Gilbert Khoo was sentenced to jail at a British court in March, 2020 for smuggling live 'glass eels' to Hong Kong. He was caught with 200kg and the total haul between 2015 and 2017 was worth about $69m. Photo: National Crime Agency

Khoo, pictured holding two pieces of gold, was arrested after Border Force officers seized a consignment at Heathrow Airport. Photo: National Crime Agency

Dubai Police released this image of drugs in a hollowed out book. It was part of a consignment of two tonnes of drugs of various types. A multinational police operation tackled criminal activities related to drug smuggling and trafficking in Denmark, Holland, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and Austria in November 2017. Photo: Dubai Police

A passenger tried to smuggle a whole roasted hog from Peru to Atlanta in November, 2016, for Thanksgiving. US Customs staff seized the hidden pig, which is banned by laws designed to prevent foot and mouth disease and swine fever. Photo: US Customs and Border Protection

Drugs are hidden inside a microwave as seizures are displayed at Dubai Airport in July 2019. Chris Whiteoak / The National

One of the largest drug busts in Dubai's history was made at Jebel Ali Port in May 2019. Sniffer dogs alerted officers to a shipment that was found to contain 5.7 million Captagon pills. Photo: Dubai Police

Captagon is a type of amphetamine originally used for attention deficit disorders, but was banned in the 1980s due to its highly addictive nature. Smugglers in Syria have thrived during the chaos of the war there, and many shipments have been traced to the Arab state. Photo: Dubai Police