Huge drug haul: 5 million pills of banned painkiller seized by Dubai Police

Dubai Police has foiled an attempt to smuggle nearly five million pills of an illegal painkiller into the UAE.

Major General Khamis Mattar Al Al Muzaina, commander in chief of Dubai Police, said 4.8 milion tablets of the banned ‘Kaptagon’ painkiller was brought into the UAE in two containers through Jebel Ali Port on a ship coming from Lebanon. The smugglers intended to use the UAE as a transit point and send the narcotic pills to a neighbouring country, he added.

Al Muzaina said Lebanese authorities had informed the UAE about a large consignment of illegal painkillers on its way to Dubai.

Police monitored the two containers which were received by four Arab men –two Lebanese, a Syrian and an Egyptian and landed in Al Awir.

The gang then moved the containers to Sharjah and then to Ras Al Khaimah and finally returned them back to Al Awir area in Dubai in order to see if they are being watched by police.

“They then transferred one container to a workshop in Fujeirah. We raided the workshop and found the gang taking the drugs out of the container. They resisted arrest and tried to escape but we nabbed them,” Al Muzaina said.

The pills were hidden inside metal pipes kept inside the containers to avoid detection by scanners at Jebel Ali Port.

Police then raided the place where the second container in Dubai and seized the pills. “The mastermind of the smuggling operation was a Syrian. We issued an arrest warrant to catch him and bring him to Dubai for trial,” Al Muzaina added.

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