Saudi Arabia seizes more than 400kg of drugs, 22 arrested

The drugs were coming from Yemen, a spokesman said

The Saudi Arabian authorities arrested 22 people and seized more than 400 kilogrammes of drugs in the past week, a spokesman said on Monday.

“The guards in the southern border (Jizan, Najran and Asir) foiled an attempt to smuggle hashish and heroin into the country,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted the spokesman as saying.

“The drugs were coming from Yemeni territory. Twenty-two people were arrested.”

Of the 22 suspects, 11 were Ethiopians, 10 were Yemenis and one was a Saudi citizen.

The report said that they were caught with 356 kilogrammes of hashish and 42 kilogrammes of heroin.

Read more: War-linked drugs trade threatens the Arab world

Last year, more than 150 kilogrammes of marijuana and almost three million Captagon tablets were seized in joint GCC operations.

Anti-Narcotics departments from the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman foiled four operations and arrested 12 suspects in connection to smuggling drugs during the first half of the year, a senior official said.

Lt Col Saeed Al Suwaidi, director-general of the Anti-Narcotics Federal Directorate General at the UAE’s Ministry of Interior, said that three of the raids were carried out in co-operation with Saudi Arabian authorities and police collaborated with Omani security forces on the fourth.

Col Taher Al Dhaheri, director of Abu Dhabi Police's Drug Control department, said they were tipped-off about a regional network of drug traffickers plotting to smuggle 50 kilogrammes of hashish from Yemen to Oman through the UAE.