Drugs seized in Dubai triple in 9 months

Intensified crackdown by Dubai’s counter-drug squads more than tripled the quantity of narcotics seized in the emirate in the first nine months of 2012 and citizens from the GDC and other Arab nations emerged as the main culprits in such offences.
 
Police figures showed around 795 kg of hashish, heroin and other types of drugs were busted in the emirate of more than two million people in the first nine months of 2012 compared with 206 kg in the first nine months of 2011.
 
Drug cases increased by 14 per cent to 720 involving 1,022 defendant from 630 cases involving 881 defendants in the same period, showed the figures, provided by Major General Abdul Jalil Al Asmawi, head of the counter-drugs department.
 
A breakdown showed those arrested in the first nine months of this year included 455 from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, 201 people from the remaining Arab nations and 366 from other countries.
 
The figures showed the quantities busted this year involved 86.3 kg of heroin, 277 kg of hashish, 52 kg of opium, 197 kg of cocaine, one kg of marijuana and 1,830 gm of the Qat, a drug-like herb planted in Yemen and other countries. They also included nearly 298,000 drug pills.

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