Cairo: Saudi anti-drug police have thwarted an attempt to smuggle 11.9 million drug tablets of amphetamine at the Red Sea port of Jeddah, the Saudi news agency SPA reported.
The haul had been hidden inside a container of gypsum board building ma-terials. The attempt was thwarted by the General Directorate of Narcotics Control in coordination with the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (Zatca), SPA added.
The Interior Ministry posted a video showing how the haul was seized. No arrests were reported.
Saudi Arabia has intensified its crackdown on narcotics smugglers and traffickers in what is dubbed the “war on drugs”, recently reporting a series of aborted attempts.
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Last month, Saudi customs officers foiled an attempt to smuggle 2.4 million drug Captagon pills at the Jeddah port, the second such bid announced in October.
Zatca said the haul had been found hidden in a shipment arriving to the kingdom via the port.
Also in October, Zatca said an attempt to smuggle 1.2 million Captagon pills at a border crossing had been foiled.
That haul had been found inside a marble mixer consignment arriving at the Halat Ammar crossing near the border with Jordan.
The Interior Ministry said last month authorities had uncovered and dismantled a ring involved in drug smuggling and trafficking in Riyadh in-cluding 16 government employees.
Twenty-one accused persons were arrested, including 16 employees at the ministries of the interior, the National Guard, defence, municipalities, and justice, a source at the ministry said.
In September, Zatca said customs officers had thwarted 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 foiling at the same port an attempt to smuggle 236kg of cocaine that was hidden in a banana shipment.
