The Saudi authorities have foiled an attempt to smuggle around half a million narcotic pills, allegedly linked to Hezbollah, into Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Interior Ministry said on Wednesday night.
The foiled smuggling operation involved 451,807 pills of amphetamine, which were set to be indirectly smuggled to Saudi Arabia from Lebanon by Hezbollah, Col. Talal Al-Shalhoub, Security Spokesperson of the Interior Ministry, stated following the bust.
He was quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency as saying that the drug bust was the outcome of “the proactive security monitoring of the activities of criminal networks that smuggle drugs into the Kingdom.”
The plan was to ship the drugs from Lebanon inside mechanical equipment by sea to Nigeria, from which they would be sent to another country before finally being shipped to Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi authorities had been coordinating with their Nigerian counterparts to thwart the attempt before the shipment could leave Nigeria, the spokesperson said.
Al-Shalhoub praised the cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Nigeria to seize the narcotics, affirming that his country would continue to monitor criminal drug activity that targets Saudi Arabia.
It is to note that Saudi Arabia banned the import of fruits and vegetables from Lebanon earlier this year, after busting a large drug shipment concealed in pomegranates.
