Muscat: The Royal Oman Police (ROP) have seized a huge quantity of narcotics with the arrest of two people in the Rusayil suburb in Muscat, according to a press release issued on Wednesday.
“Following a tip off we arrested two Omanis and found a suitcase full of narcotics,” a spokesman for the ROP said.
He added that they found 597 packets of qat, a stimulant drug derived from a shrub, weighing 103-kg, and seven rolls of plastic filled with heroin.
“We would appeal to all residents in Oman to help police fight the menace of drugs in the country,” he said, asking people to contact 9999 or 1444 to report any drug related activity.
Meanwhile, the Customs Officers with the ROP foiled three different smuggling attempts at the Wajaja Border with the UAE, about 350 km north of Muscat.
“In the first case a trailer truck driver was attempting to smuggle vans without the GCC specifications,” the ROP spokesman revealed.
“The cargo looked similar to the invoice but a closer inspection of the four vehicles loaded onto the truck revealed that all were right-hand drive vans and in violations of the specifications required for the GCC,” he added.
In another case a pick up car driver was caught with a huge quantity of cigarettes hidden in different parts of a pickup van. He had kept cigarette packs under the front hood, around the spare tyre and the other places in the pickup,” he said.
In the third case, a company was trying to evade customs duty by trying to smuggle iron into the country.
The Customs officers have confiscated vehicles and arrested the suspects for further action.
And, in the southern region of the country, the ROP have busted a prostitution ring with the arrests of two women and a man of Asian origin from an apartment in Salalah, about 1,000 km south of Muscat.
“All three have been referred to the Public Prosecution,” the ROP spokesman said.
