Cairo: Saudi Arabia has uncovered and dismantled a ring involved in drug smuggling and trafficking in Riyadh including 16 government employees, an official source at the kingdom’s Interior Ministry has said.
Twenty-one accused persons were arrested, including 16 employees at the ministries of the interior, the National Guard, defence, municipalities and justice, added the source.
The suspects’ roles varied and included smuggling drugs from outside the kingdom, replacing the seized narcotic substances with similar ones before they were destroyed by the competent agency, transporting and trading in them, destroying evidence linked to defendants in drug cases, and leaking information about verdicts.
In recent months, Saudi Arabia has stepped up its crackdown on narcotics smugglers and traffickers in what is dubbed the “war on drugs”, reporting a series of aborted attempts.
Last month, the Saudi Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (Zatca) said customs officers had busted the smuggling of nearly 55kg of cocaine that had been hidden in a banana shipment, the second such bid foiled in the kingdom in less than a month.
The latest attempt was thwarted at the King Abdullah port in the Rabigh governorate, part of the Mecca region, in a shipment from abroad.
Earlier in September, Saudi anti-drug police announced thwarting an attempt to smuggle 236kg of cocaine that was hidden in a banana shipment. The haul was seized by the General Directorate of Narcotics Control in coordination with Zatca at the same port
In late August, Saudi authorities said they had thwarted an attempt to smuggle 349,710 drug Captagon pills hidden in tile-polishing equipment at a border crossing.
Zatca said the bid had been uncovered inside a consignment arriving to the kingdom at the Jadidat Arar border crossing with Iraq. Four would-be recipients were arrested.
In July, Saudi police rounded up 14 people involved in narcotics peddling and smuggling in several parts of the country.
