Dubai Police, on Monday, 18 April, said that they had blocked attempts of smugglers to smuggle $18.7 million (Dh68.7 million) worth of crystal methamphetamine into the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The drugs had been hidden inside several solar planets. The Police Force stated while posting on Facebook that the force said Operation Panel caused in the arrest of around ten UAE residents who were trying to bring a total of 1,056kg of crystal meth into the country.
The search operation was then carried out by the General Department of Anti-Narcotics, which held the suspects that were allegedly trying to hide the drugs in 264 solar panels.
Dubai Police Officers also released a video while describing how they watched the suspects collect the delivery from a warehouse and transport the shipment to some other location. Police dogs were then used to locate the drugs.
Dubai Police said ten people were detained as they tried to smuggle the drugs.
Major General Khalil Ibrahim Al Mansouri, Assistant Commander-in-Chief for Criminal Investigation Affairs, said, “We made sure all wrongdoers involved were arrested and brought to justice by closely observing the first accused who received the shipment at a port. Other nine suspects were also arrested later.”
He further stated, “Dubai Police always develop work mechanisms to stay forward of criminals and their deceptive methods.”
Dubai International Airport customs officials last month thwarted a women’s attempt to smuggle more than 5 kg of cocaine inside the emirate.
The inspection staff at the airport became suspicious of the tourist, who had arrived from Latin America and had flagged her luggage for an X-ray.
The scan demonstrated an unusually dense space at the bottom of the woman’s suitcase.
Inspectors found the internal lining of her bag had a hidden pocket in which black plastic packets having 3.2kg of cocaine were concealed.
Another 2.4kg had been concealed inside her shampoo and moisturiser bottles.