Sharjah Police foil 115kg drug smuggling operation during Eid

The Anti-Narcotics Department of the Sharjah Police has seized over 115kg of narcotics and psychoactive drugs, and more than 51,000 narcotic pills during Eid Al Fitr.

The operation, codenamed Rased intercepted a gang of seven suspected drug peddlers, all of whom were Asian nationals, leading to their arrest.

The narcotics department was tipped off about a large quantity of the illicit substances being smuggled into the UAE through its territorial waters within the jurisdiction of Sharjah, said Lt. Col. Majid Sultan Al-Asam, Director of the Anti-Narcotics Department of Sharjah Police.

As a result of the tip-off, several teams of specialists were formed to seize the drugs in collaboration with the Critical Infrastructure and Coastal Protection Authority (CICPA).

In December, Sharjah’s Anti-narcotics department also arrested a gang of nine persons, who were attempting to sell more than a million “Zinex” tablets, worth over Dhs15m, in the country.

Read: Sharjah Police arrests gang, foils sale of Dhs15m worth of narcotic tablets

In related developments, the UAE Federal Public Prosecution clarified on Monday that a convicted drug abuser refusing to submit to a drug test in the UAE shall be imprisoned for two years and fined an amount not less than Dhs10,000.

The Public Prosecution said that penalties will be applied according to the Federal Law No. 14 of 1995 in respect of combating Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.