30 drug smuggling bids foiled in Dubai in first quarter of 2019

Dubai - The highly trained inspectors and smart devices and equipment were very helpful in the operations.

Dubai Customs inspectors at the Jebel Ali Free Zone managed to foil 30 drug smuggling attempts in the first quarter of the year, a top official has said. Among the drugs seized were heroin, cocaine and tramadol.
Ahmed Mahboob Musabih, director of the Dubai Customs, said that throughout 2018, a total of 84 drug seizures were conducted at the same zone, with the biggest being the confiscation of 10 million tramadol pills.
The other major drug seizures last year included five million Captagon pills, 13kg of cocaine, and 25,700kg of cannabis seeds, Musabih added.
"The highly trained inspectors and smart devices and equipment were very helpful in the operations," he said.
Yousef Al Hashimi, director of the Jebel Ali Customs Centres Management, said his men have facilitated 766,000 customs transactions in the first quarter of 2019.
"These are compared to around 2.83 million customs transactions done and 569,000 containers handled last year," he said.
The centre has recently applied a smart inspection system that successfully streamlined the flow of containers and improved the process of tracking them.
The payment of fees, as well as the issuance of entry and exit permits for goods, have also been automated, Al Hashimi said.
"The full X-ray container detection system, the first of its kind in the world, can process 150 containers per hour," he added. "These achievements at the Jebel Ali Customs Centre Management support our preparations for the upcoming Expo 2020."
ahmedshaaban@khaleejtimes.com
 

• UAE