Muscat: The Royal Oman Police (ROP) has continued a crackdown against drug users and suppliers, with raids across the country that resulted in seven people being arrested last week.
A drug trafficker of Asian origin was apprehended in Muscat. He was found in possession of heroin.
In another case, a drug trafficker and a dealer were also caught with 15 capsules containing heroin in Seeb on the outskirts of Muscat.
Another trafficker was caught in Ameraat, the eastern suburb of Muscat, with a kilogram of hashish and some unspecified quantity of heroin.
In Al Dhahirah, police stormed a house to find three people abusing drugs. The search party found hashish and heroin in the house.
The accused were referred to the General Prosecution for further investigations.
Anti-drug abuse policy
Meanwhile, Major General Salim Bin Musallam Bin Ali Qatan, Assistant Inspector-General of Police and Customs and member of the National Committee on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, has said that Oman adopts a balanced policy in dealing with the problem of drug abuse, especially in terms of awareness and prevention of dangers of drugs.
"Awareness campaigns aims at reaching three categories. First is of persons who are not drug abusers to protect them from being affected," he said during a seminar.
"The second category includes influential people like teachers, media, athletes and family, and the third category includes drug abusers to be rehabilitated," he added.
He said that Oman has ratified a number of international memoranda of understanding and has also contributed to the establishment of criminal information centre to combat drugs in the GCC states.
There were several factors that contributed to the existence of drug problem globally, he said.
"Statistics indicate of high global production in the exporting countries of the drugs," he added.
