Saudi Arabia arrests 3 Syrians, 2 Pakistanis in thwart of drug shipment
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Saudi Arabia announced on Wednesday the arrest of two Syrian residents, two other Pakistani, and a Syria with an expired visitor visa in a thwart of smuggled drug shipment.
Saudi authorities during the thwart seized over eight million Captagon pills, however, the authorities did not reveal any details about the destination where the shipment came from or where it was thwarted.
The Saudi General Directorate of Narcotics Control said that the Captagon pills were hidden in “a shipment of coffee creamer,” according to Al-Monitor, a news website.
This came in tandem with Arab efforts to stop and fight drugs smuggling, especially from Syria that has become famous for producing and smuggling drugs to different regional and international destinations in turn for billions of dollars a year.
Reuters revealed on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia offered a $4 billion compensation to Syria for the loss of drug trade, according to information by a regional source close to Damascus.
On May 8 at dawn, Jordanian flights targeted a building used for storing drugs in the vicinity of the village of Kharab al-Shahem in the western countryside of Daraa, south Syria, as the same flight targeted a house of the prominent drug dealer Marei Ramthan in Suwayda countryside, killing him along with his family.
Arab foreign ministers of the Arab League agreed on May 7 to officially return Syria to the Arab League that has been suspended since 2011 in the wake of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad brutality against his own people.