Dubai Police seize 130kg heroin at Jebel Ali Port

DUBAI — The Anti-Narcotics Unit of the Dubai Police has seized 130kg of heroin that was hidden in wooden crates inside a container, said Major-General Abdul Jalil Mehdi, Director of General Department of Anti-Narcotics during a Press conference on Sunday.

by

Amira Agarib

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Published: Tue 22 Nov 2011, 12:36 AM

Last updated: Tue 7 Apr 2015, 10:38 AM

The largest drug seizure operation of the year was named ‘confused container’ as the container carrying drugs passed through four countries before it was caught in Dubai.

“In Just one night, the Dubai Police have seized 130kg of raw heroin, values around Dh65 million. The contraband was found after a manual inspection as the scanner didn’t show any presence of drugs,” said Abdul Jalil Mehdi, adding that the drug was hidden in a professional and artistic way to dupe the officials.

He said the operation was the largest this year, considering the size of the shipment and transit of it through four countries. The Dubai Police received information on July 23 this year that a shipment of iron filings, with drugs hidden inside it, had been shipped from Port Qasim in Pakistan, which belongs to a trading company in Pakistan. The investigations showed that the shipment was gone to Salalah port in Oman, Tangier port in Morocco, Port Tinkan in Nigeria and then to Jebel Ali Port in October this year, and was intended to return to Port Qasim again on October 12. He said the shipment continuously changed routes to more than one country as the gang behind that got suspicious.

Abdul Jalil said: “Any information provided to Anti-Narcotics Unit is dealt with very seriously, regardless of the credibility of the information. Them we set a team immediately to investigate it.”

He explained that the police had identified the container and inspected it, but the initial results of scanning for the entire day showed that it is free of any banned substances. “Then a decision was made to inspect the container manually. A police official suspected the wooden crates carrying ‘iron filings’ and broke one of them to find heroin bags inside it,” he said, adding that the contraband weighed 130kg was seized after the inspection. Abdul Jalil said that the police investigation revealed that an international gang was behind the shipment process. The gang used false names and they sent a container to Spain, which was detected two days before the seizure in Dubai. The description of that container matched with Dubai shipments. He said that the Dubai Police have sent the names of the suspects to the Pakistani authorities to follow up.

He explained that the smell of iron covered the smell of heroin, as well as the density of iron was more than that of the drug and this was one of the camouflage methods used by international gangs which makes authorities difficult to detect the drugs. Abdul Abdul Jalil also said that each wooden crate contained 500 grams to 700 grams of heroin. He expressed his thanks to the officials at the Anti-Narcotic Unit, who took much effort to search the container several times, until the drug was detected.

He also praised the importance of international cooperation that contributes to the elimination of the drug trade and save millions of young people.

news@khaleejtimes.com


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