Some of the contraband.

Gulf Today,Staff Reporter

Sharjah Police’s Anti-Narcotics Department, in co-operation with the UAE police authorities, carried out two unique security operations, through which they were able to overthrow a gang of 24 Arabs and Asians with 120 kilograms of hashish and 3 million Captagon pills worth Dhs23.5 million in their possession.

In the first operation, the anti-narcotics agencies received a tip-off that a number of Asians had in their possession a quantity of Captagon pills that they were planning to peddle among a group of people in collaboration with a man outside the country, said Lieutenant Colonel Majed Al Asam, Director of Anti-Narcotics Department at Sharjah Police.

Based on this, Sharjah Police’s anti-narcotics agencies started to watch the suspects and set a tight trap to catch them and their accomplices, in co-operation and co-ordination with Dubai Police and Ajman Police, he added. At the zero hour, all the gang members inside the country were caught one after the other, he said.

The gathered inferences showed that the suspects used to receive their instructions from another suspect outside the country for peddling the pills and drugs and storing them all over the UAE for subsequent promotion, he added. The anti-narcotics team was able to seize as many as three million Captagon pills, which they were hiding in a container, in co-operation with Dubai Police, he said.

Another team was assigned to monitor another gang engaged in possessing and peddling hashish, he added, noting that as much as 120 kilograms of hashish were seized in co-operation with Ajman Police, he added. Al Asam pointed out that on interrogation, the suspects confessed to having stored and peddled narcotics and accordingly were referred with the seized items to the competent authority so that the necessary legal measures would be taken.

Sharjah Police called on members of the society to co-operate with them for protecting people, especially young ones, from falling into the clutches of drugs by reporting any suspected case to 8004654 or via dea@shjpolice.gov.ae.