ABU DHABI: Abu Dhabi customs foiled 4,391 attempts to smuggle illegal goods, including drugs and counterfeit items into the UAE, during the first three months of the year.
Authorities recorded 175 attempts to smuggle drugs, including more than 2 million pills and 1.6 kilograms of poppy seeds, amounting to more than 8 kilograms, according to a report released on Tuesday by Abu Dhabi’s General Administration of Customs. Most smuggling attempts were at Abu Dhabi International Airport.
There were also 85 attempts to smuggle counterfeit goods, and 710 attempts to smuggle prescription drugs. In one case, after arriving on a flight from an Asian country, customs inspectors became suspicious of an Asian traveller.
The 24-year-old’s belongings were examined and more than 1kg of prohibited substances were found wrapped around his legs in plastic bags.
In another case, an inspector at the Ghuwaifat Customs Centre on the UAE’s western border became suspicious of a 27-year-old Arab travelling from an Arab country.
After inspecting the vehicle and the suspect, 569 Captagon pills were found hidden in secret compartments in the vehicle.
Authorities said they also foiled 424 tobacco and 50 alcohol smuggling attempts, seizing more than 200 bottles. Additionally, 15 people were prevented from entering the country illegally, 85 attempts at commercial fraud through the non-disclosure of goods and other methods were foiled, and 20 attempts to smuggle money thwarted.
In one case inspectors found Dh290,236 in undisclosed UAE and Saudi bank notes hidden in the vehicle and shoes of a 29-year-old Asian traveller.
