Dubai Police help foil cocaine smuggling bid

Dubai: An attempt to smuggle 140kg of cocaine worth Dh14 million to Malta through Jebel Ali Port has been foiled in an international operation, Dubai Police announced yesterday.

Major General Abdul Jalil Mahdi, Director of the General Anti-Narcotics Department, said the department received a tip about a ship carrying the drug on April 30.

The ship arrived from a port in South America and transited other ports before arriving in Jebel Ali, he said. A team from the department following up on the case found out that the information received was not accurate and that the ship had left the port a few days earlier. The investigation continued, and the team got accurate information about the ship including its number and load.

The drug was hidden inside olive pressing machines on the ship, which was heading for Malta after passing ports in Asia and Africa without its drug load being discovered.

The department informed the authorities in Malta about the ship's load, which resulted in the drug haul.