Middle East News
Saudi customs agents boast of biggest drug haul in history
Jul 4, 2009, 10:30 GMT
Riyadh - Saudi customs agents intercepted more illicit drugs from smugglers trying to enter the country during the past two months than during any other two months in the kingdom's history, a spokesman said on Saturday.
Over the course of May and June, Saudi customs agents seized 41 kilograms of hashish, 14 million illegal pills, and 4 kilograms of heroin 'smuggled in the shoes and bowels of travelers,' a statement from the Saudi customs authority said.
It was the largest haul during any similar period in Saudi history, Abdullah al-Kharbush, a spokesman for the agency, said in remarks carried by the official Saudi news agency.
Drug trafficking is punishable by beheading in Saudi Arabia, though the United Nations' drug-control agency notes that executions for drug smuggling have declined in recent years.
The London-based human rights organisation Amnesty International found in a 2008 report that Saudi authorities execute an average of more than two people a week for all crimes punishable by death, and that those executed were disproportionately foreigners from poor countries.
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Older Talkback
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There is much hula ballu in Pakistan about the citizens of that country caught red-handed with heroine in their shoes recently. It is claimed both by the accused and their relatives that they are innocent. An Anti-Norcotic Force has also declared them as innocent today. What the law enforcing agencies of the Saudi Arabia has to say in this respect?
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duh_swamiJul 4th, 2009 - 15:19:20
What?? Trouble in paradise? I thought all those people were highly religious. All those confiscated drugs indicate a lot of unhappy people, or rich with too much time on their hands.
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