DUBAI: Thirty-five million tramadol pills and 2.5 tonnes of narcotics powder have been seized by customs officials at Jebel Ali Port.
Yousuf Al Hashemi, director of Jebel Ali Customs Centre, said the haul was one of the largest seizures of controlled substances at the port.
“In a failed attempt to hoodwink customs officers, the importer packed the tramadol powder in plastic bags inside 100 barrels and the 35 million tramadol pills were concealed in 140 carton boxes,” he said.
The drugs were held by Dubai Customs, while the importing company’s agent was referred to police “for further action and investigation”,he said.
The drugs were sent from an Asian country in parcels labelled as medical products and equipment. Talal Al Abdooli, director of the Customs Intelligence Department, said the importer had tried to smuggle tramadol before.
He said: “The unclean history of the importer, including a miscarried bid by the same company to smuggle tramadol via Dubai Cargo Village at the turn of this year” as well as “the belief that the consignee was going to receive another suspicious shipment”, had led to the tracking of the consignment by customs inspectors.
“They tracked it until its arrival at the port of Jebel Ali, where it was seized immediately.”
Tramadol is a controlled substance that requires a permit from the Ministry of Health before it can be imported.
