JEDDAH: Saudi Customs officials at King Khalid International Airport thwarted an attempt to smuggle a total of 569,531 Captagon pills on Monday.
Mohammed Al-Aqeel, director general of Airport Customs, said that the pills were hidden in a biscuit-mixer machine weighing 360kg, and when it was subjected to the usual inspection procedures, caches prepared for the purpose of smuggling were discovered.
In July, Customs officials foiled attempts to smuggle contraband into the Kingdom via King Abdul Aziz Airport.
The illegal substances seized included 114,928 of Captagon and Tramadol tablets, in addition to a quantity of 1,467kg of narcotics.
The first attempt was thwarted through the usual screening and passenger inspections on one of the inbound flights to the Kingdom, when a Customs controller suspected six travel bags containing 65 packets of sweets. A total of 98,500 tablets were found, an official said.
He said that the second attempt was thwarted in the same way and 16,120 illegal Tramadol tablets were confiscated.
The third attempt resulted in the seizure of 1,465kg of narcotic drugs, which were hidden in two pieces of hand luggage belonging to one passenger, while the fourth attempt was discovered in a suitcase after a passenger tried to smuggle 308 Tramadol pills inside a shirt collar.
