JEDDAH: Saudi border guards have foiled separate drug smuggling attempts in Tabuk and Jazan provinces, Border Guard General Directorate said on Wednesday.
Border Guard spokesman Col. Saher Al-Harbi said marine patrols in the Hagel governorate of Tabuk seized 97,500 amphetamine tablets (Captagon) and 7.7 grams of opium from a boat that tried to enter Saudi waters.
He said the boat tried to flee to Egyptian waters when Saudi marine patrols approached it. The patrols, however, managed to stop it and an inspection yielded the banned drugs. Two Egyptians on board were arrest and their boat had been impounded.
In Jazan, border guards intercepted a boat near Fursan Island and seized 154 kilograms of hashish and 113,621 amphetamine (Captagon) tablets.
Two Yemenis on board the boat were subsequently arrested.
In a third incident, customs officials in the port of Duba, Tabuk, stopped smuggling attempts of over 1 million narcotic tablets hidden in parcels.
Ali Al-Otowi, head of the Duba Port Customs, said a big quantity of Captagon tablets were stopped through two separate smuggling attempts. The first was a parcel contained in one of the trucks and hidden in cartons of A4 paper. It yielded 545,490 Captagon tablets hidden in the cartons.
Border guards thwart drug smuggling attempts in Tabuk and Jazan
Updated 25 May 2017