Saudi seizes five million hetamine tablets
Date
12/27/2015 11:09:37 PM
(MENAFN- The Peninsula) (For representational purpose / AFP)
Riyadh: Saudi authorities said Sunday that they had seized more than five million amphetamine tablets and arrested 11 people in one of the kingdom's largest drug busts.
The suspects -- nine Saudis and two Sudanese citizens -- were arrested in Riyadh as an illegal deal was being completed state news agency SPA quoted an interior ministry spokesman as saying.
Three grams of heroin a machine gun and a pistol were also seized from the suspects the spokesman said without elaborating.
Drug smuggling appears to be on the rise in the country despite a crackdown by the authorities.
The interior ministry announced in November that it had seized a total of 22.4 million amphetamine tablets 28.8 tons of cannabis and 26.2 kilograms of heroin in the last Islamic calendar year which ends in mid-October.
Drug smuggling is punishable by death in the kingdom.
AFP