After years of practicing in Al Ain, Yas Marina Circuit and Dubai Autodrome, Al Jaeedi decided to take another hobby into action
uae14 hours ago
Authorities in the UAE have foiled an international gang's bid to smuggle narcotic pills worth Dh3.87 billion in the largest ever haul of banned Captagon tablets.
The gang tried to smuggle 13 tonnes of captagon pills in 651 doors and 432 home décor panels. In the operation codenamed 'Storm', the Dubai Police seized over 86 million tablets.
Lieutenant-General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, said six suspects were arrested red-handed as they tried to smuggle the drugs in five shipping containers. With this, the police have dismantled an "international criminal cartel".
A video shared by the Minister of Interior showed how the police monitored and tracked the suspects and arrested them one after another.
According to the police, the gang concealed the pills in doors made of iron and wood and wooden home decor furniture panels. The police had to break open these panels to extract the drugs — a process that lasted "several days", according to the interior ministry. The ministry's video footage showed officers drilling through the wood to recover the powdered drug.
Captagon (generic name: fenethylline) was initially produced in the 1960s as a treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It was banned a couple of decades later because of its addictive nature.
While commercial manufacturing of the drug has ceased, illegal production continues. Also called the 'poor man's cocaine', the pill in its current form combines several highly addictive stimulants that "compound the destructive effects of captagon's amphetamine and theophylline combination", according to the Dubai Customs.
Criminals try to smuggle the pills by concealing them in different consignments. In May, the Abu Dhabi Police arrested a gang of three who attempted to smuggle 2.25 million captagon pills in boxes of apricots. In February, 4.5 million pills hidden in food cans were seized. In another operation, authorities in Dubai found the drug tablets concealed in food and medical equipment.
ALSO READ:
After years of practicing in Al Ain, Yas Marina Circuit and Dubai Autodrome, Al Jaeedi decided to take another hobby into action
uae14 hours ago
Annual educational fees total Dh40,000, with additional Dh40,000 for therapy services, varying based on individual needs
uae15 hours ago
The exhibition, titled Eternal Letters: Qur’an Manuscripts from the Abdul Rahman Al Owais Collection, spans over 1,300 years of history
uae16 hours ago
Students have expressed their love for the milk’s taste, with many noting that their families also purchase it for home use
uae16 hours ago
People across the country can watch it live on December 2 on local TV channels, cinemas and selected public areas
uae19 hours ago
The tremors were not felt by UAE residents despite the country's close proximity to Iran
uae22 hours ago
He was a founding member of the Dubai chapter of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and once served as general manager of Khaleej Times
uae1 day ago
No casualties were reported by authorities in Aurora province, but thousands of homes were damaged, and heavy losses were sustained
uae1 day ago