The photo has been used for illustrative purposes.

Mahmoud Mohsen, Staff Reporter

Inspection teams from Sharjah Municipality seized a vehicle loaded with prohibited materials and another with cardboard boxes containing banned drinks. The vehicles were on their way to sell and promote them.

The teams in cooperation with General Directorate of the Sharjah Police handed over the seizures.

Khalifa Bughanim Al Suwaidi, head of the Municipal Inspection Department, said the inspection teams and police patrols were able to seize a vehicle in Sharjah, carrying 260 kilogrammes of banned items. Another vehicle loaded with 36 prohibited drinks was seized as well. Owners of those items intended to sell them in order to make money illegally, he added.

He pointed out that the Sharjah Municipality continues to conduct intensive periodic campaigns, through inspection teams, to curb negative practices.

Sharjah Municipality called on community members not to deal with such individuals and to cooperate with it by contacting the Call Centre on 993 to report any negative incidents.

Recently, it was revealed that a total of 421 drug smuggling bids were foiled across Dubai’s various land, sea and air ports of entry in the first three months of 2019. The top narcotics seized were tramadol, captagon, opium, heroin, cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine, cannabis seeds, khat, and other drugs.

This was announced by Dubai Customs on the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking observed annually.

The biggest illegal drug seizure of Q1 2019 took place at the Jebel Ali Customs Centres in a case where an attempt to smuggle 5.715 million captagon pills was foiled. The Airport Passenger Operations foiled 269 drug smuggling bids, while the Land Customs Centres thwarted 98, with 50 more seizures taking place at the Air Customs Centres, and three in the Coastal Customs Centres. Last year, Dubai Customs foiled 1,105 narcotics smuggling attempts.

“The major challenge facing us at Dubai Customs is to find the perfect balance between facilitating the movement of huge volumes of trade and passengers coming through Dubai and protecting the local society against the perils of smuggling. Thanks to our targeting and risk mitigation model, we are able to meet that challenge with great efficiency,” said Ahmed Mahboob Musabih, Director General of Dubai Customs.