UAE seizes 13 tonnes of Captagon pills worth Dhs3.8 billion
- 14 Sep 2023
Gulf Today, Staff Reporter
Lieutenant General Sheikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, was briefed on the details of Dubai Police’s special operation called ‘Storm,’ as a result of which one of the largest Captagon smuggling operations by an international criminal gang was detected.
Sheikh Saif affirmed that with the wisdom and vision of its prudent leadership and ongoing directives, the UAE will remain an oasis of security and safety and will be on the lookout for anyone who dares to tamper with the security and safety of the Emirati society.
The UAE competent authorities are capable of cordoning off the activities of gangs and drug dealers and thwarting their plots for the UAE to remain invulnerable to criminals and poison dealers, he said.
Sheikh Saif said so when he received the Dubai Police’s team in the presence of Major General Khalifa Hareb Al Khaili, Undersecretary of Ministry of Interior, Lieutenant General Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri, Commander-in-Chief of Dubai Police, Major General Khalil Ibrahim Al Mansouri, Assistant Commander-in-Chief for Criminal Investigation Affairs at Dubai Police, Major General Eid Mohammed Thani Hareb, Director of General Department of Anti-Narcotics, Brigadier Khalid Bin Muwaiza, Deputy Director of General Department of Anti-Narcotics at Dubai Police, and a number of officers.
As part of the Storm operation, Dubai Police managed to arrest six gang members red-handed and to seize 86.02 million Captagon tablets weighing over 13,763 tonnes with a market value of Dhs3.871 billion.
The Dubai Police General Command explained that the gang tried to smuggle Captagon pills in an innovative way inside 651 doors professionally made of thick iron and wood, and inside 432 home decor furniture panels made of expensive graphite and wood, but the efforts of members of the General Department of Narcotics Control succeeded in revealing their method.
The malicious team was able to hide narcotic substances, and was able to identify the transport route of containers carrying the pills, leading to the arrest of those involved in the criminal smuggling attempt.
The gang tried to smuggle the Captagon tablets inside 651 doors professionally made of thick iron and wood and inside 432 interior design furniture panels made of expensive graphite and wood, the Dubai Police said.
Talking about the details of the Storm operation, Major General Eid Mohammed Thani Hareb, Director of the General Department of Anti-Narcotics, said the department received a tip-off that suspicious containers were on board of a giant cargo ship and that an organized international gang intended to bring the same into the UAE before being transported to another country.
Consequently, the department set a solid plan of action to check the content of the containers, he added.
He pointed out that the anti-narcotics work team placed 5 containers containing furniture among the suspected containers before they examined them in co-operation with the strategic partners at Dubai Customs by using X-ray detection devices and police dogs, adding that the Captagon tablets were found inside the furniture.
Hareb stated that the work team managed to identify a gang member and put him under close surveillance until he came to the port where he submitted a request to extract three out of five containers, adding that at this point he was arrested.
The gang member said he was seeking to transport the containers to an industrial area where someone would receive them from him, he said.
The work team let the containers be transported as per the gang member’s plan and upon arrival at the industrial area, the authorities were able to arrest the second and third gang members involved in transporting and smuggling the first three containers, he added.
As for the other two containers at the port, Bin Muwaiza said the anti-narcotics team placed them under close surveillance until two people came to clear their customs papers and were immediately arrested. On interrogation, they admitted that they were seeking to transport the containers to a neighbouring emirate.
Bin Muwaiza pointed out that Dubai Police had already transported the containers under strict security measures to their destination as per the route specified by the gang until the person who was supposed to collect them arrived and was arrested while trying to unload the containers in a warehouse with the help of a number of workers.
A specialized team dismantled the 651 doors and 432 furniture panels using the latest scissors and hydraulic devices and took out all the Captagon tablets from inside them, he said, adding that it took several days to remove the contents and collect the Captagon tablets.