Biggest 'gut arrest' of drug mules in Dubai airport's history

Dubai Customs has foiled a major attempt to smuggle drugs and seized 5.2kg of heroin, stuffed in 477 capsules and hidden inside the intestines of a gang of seven drug smugglers in the biggest ‘gut arrest’ in the history of Dubai's airports at Terminal 2.

Divided into two flights, the accused coordinated to finish baggage search formalities at different times, some of them at shift change intervals, hoping to mislead customs inspectors.

Ahmed Mahboob Musabih, Director of Dubai Customs said: "The seven passengers pulled several tricks, starting with booking more than one flight from their home countries; focusing on the airport’s peak arrival time and at an inspector shift swap time; thinking it would help accelerate their customs procedures and help them to slip away from the airport with the narcotics hidden in their guts."

Ahmad Abdullah bin Lahej, Director of Passenger Operations Department at Dubai Customs uncovered the details of the case beginning on October 25 at Dubai International Airport- Terminal 2, when customs inspectors suspected four Asian passengers arriving on a flight from their home country, en route to customs area.

"No sooner had the passengers showed signs of nervousness that roving passenger inspection teams coordinated to closely monitor the suspected passengers. The moment the first passenger stepped out, he was transferred along with his baggage to be searched. Nothing suspicious was found during the machine and the manual search of the luggage. Then the passenger was examined by the body scan machine, which detected some strange items inside his guts. When asked about the nature of these items, he admitted to swallowing drug-stuffed capsules. Fifty capsules were recovered from his guts at the airport and the hospital to which he was transferred later. Following up on the rest of the suspects a few minutes later, the second suspect came out and inspectors were waiting for him.  Procedures taken against the first suspect were performed against the second one and 30 capsules were taken out of him," he explained.
 
Through Customs investigation and follow up on the suspects, resemblance was established as well as kinship, making inspectors more suspicious of the identity of the other two passengers arriving on the same flight. A close monitoring of their suspicious movements was conducted, noting the time intervals between the suspects when heading to the exit gates, similar to what happened to the first two suspects. Nothing suspicious was found during the manual search of their handbags, but when the third suspect was examined by the body scan machine, murky items were detected inside his guts. Later on, 68 capsules were taken out of him, while 50 capsules were removed from the fourth passenger’s body.

Bin Lahej said a meeting was immediately held among the terminal officials for all the departments taking shifts during which a shift swap takes place in order to develop a plan, observe the situation, analyse data and information and take timely and adequate decision, in order to apprehend a fifth passenger arriving on the same flight, waiting at the transit area for the shift swap time to be over while inspectors are busy swapping shifts, not knowing that they are waiting for him. After the suspect was examined by the body scan machine, the detector showed strange substances inside his body and two drug-stuffed capsules were taken out of him.

Bin Lahej affirmed that the arrest of five Asian passengers on the flight hiding heroin inside their guts lead to more scrutiny and search for other suspected passengers. He also talked about the implemented intelligent targeting system at the passenger operations department, analysing information and tracing the routes of the flights, through communicating with the airliners and the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs-Dubai, accessing information, dates and times of arrival in the UAE.

Based on information of the work team at Terminal 2, an important discovery was made. Another two passengers, linked to the five passengers, were arriving in the UAE on a different flight, so a close surveillance was ordered against them.

Suspicions of the Customs inspectors were affirmed, and 33 heroin-stuffed capsules were taken out of the first suspect and 40 were taken out of the second, amounting to a total of 477 capsules, weighing 5.2kg of heroin, all recovered from the guts of the seven passengers at the airport and the hospital to which they were transferred.

He further added that all seven passengers were carrying recently issued passports, and trained to make the most use of Custom inspector shift change at Terminal 2.

"The exploitation by drug dealers of some of their relatives to facilitate smuggling and coordination among them was also discovered. All the detainees were sponsored by the same company, and they waited at the transit area for no reason, monitoring the inspectors remotely, waiting for the right moment to execute their plan," he said.            



 

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