DUBAI // Police seized more than 5,500 bottles of illegal alcohol as they were being smuggled to a neighbouring country, officers said yesterday. In the UAE's biggest drinks raid this year, the alcohol was found hidden inside dozens of large bundles of clothes while being transported by lorry from Dubai, where it was allegedly produced.
Police said they stopped the lorry at a border point. Dubai's only border crossing with another country is at Hatta, which adjoins Oman. However, officers did not confirm the location of the raid. For the police, it was a significant victory in their campaign against the illegal trade in alcohol, which largely takes place within labour camps. The single raid by Dubai Police yielded more than 11 times the amount of seized alcohol that was found by Dubai Municipality during the whole of 2009.
Major Saed al Ayalli, the acting director of the criminal investigation unit of Dubai Police, said three people were arrested during the raid. It took place in mid-February but was made public only yesterday. Police believe that more people were involved in the operation. "We are still investigating the case and we are expecting more details to be unveiled, but this case is the biggest so far this year," Maj al Ayalli said.
The police had put the smugglers under surveillance at the start of the year after they received a tip that a gang from an Asian country was intending to smuggle alcohol outside the country. "The suspects rented a truck with a driver so they could transport the alcohol together with clothes," Major al Ayalli said. "They had wrapped the bottles with used clothes and put them in boxes." Major Mohammed Ahli, the head of Dubai Police's criminal prosecution department, said: "We were closely monitoring the gang's activities and we knew that they were hiding the alcohol in a warehouse in Dubai. But we wanted to catch them red-handed, so we decided to wait until they tried to smuggle the alcohol."
The value of the seized alcohol is not known, but Major Ahli said that smugglers could get double the price when they smuggled it outside the UAE. Major Ahli said efforts by the police to crack down on illicit alcohol trading were paying off and that this was reflected by an increase in the number of cases discovered by the police. He did not specify how many cases had been uncovered. "The number of cases we have caught has increased as we are intensifying our efforts in the last year to crack down on such practices," he said.
In an unrelated court case in Dubai, 13 bootleggers are accused of kidnapping members of a rival gang and burying them alive. The gang is believed to have operated in Jebel Ali and allegedly used weapons such as swords and knives to threaten others. They are also accused of waging war with other gangs to gain control of territory in which to operate. However, Maj Ahli said that crimes associated with the illicit alcohol trade, such as murder, had fallen significantly.
In another raid last month, 998 bottles of illegally produced alcohol were seized and destroyed by municipal inspectors in Al Qusais. In March 2008, 500 Indian and Pakistani workers clashed in fights sparked by the sale of illegal alcohol in Jebel Ali. @Email:wissa@thenational.ae
