Dubai: Customs inspectors have foiled 126 attempts to smuggle a total of 23.5 kilograms of the narcotic ‘Spice’ over the last eight months at Dubai Cargo Village.
A synthetic drug that falls under the cannabinoid category, ‘Spice’ is a relatively new substance aimed at young drug users and is promoted through websites and sold to teenagers and youngsters as a substance that allegedly helps improve the mood.
Ahmad Abdullah Bin Lahej, senior manager of air shipping operations at Dubai Cargo Village, said that the contraband seized by Dubai Customs had arrived in parcels of different sizes with the quantity of the drug involved varying from two grams to five kilograms.
The parcels had been sent from both Arab and non-Arab countries, he said. The parcels had been addressed to young men, and one of them was even addressed to a 9-year-old Arab child, he added.
There had been an effort to pass of the narcotics as dark brown herbs in most of the packages to mislead customs inspectors, the official said. He added that the ease of finding a supplier for the substance online as well as its availability in small bags that resemble tea bags had seen its demand rise in countries around the world.
Some of the seized packages had been marked as transit goods that were to be shipped to other countries from the UAE, Lahej said.
Dubai Customs has put in intensive effort to track websites that promote drugs and narcotics in coordination with concerned agencies with some websites blocked, he added.
The seized ‘Spice’, he said, has been referred to concerned government bodies to continue the investigation and take punitive legal action with several smugglers arrested since.
Dubai Customs has urged parents to keep an eye on their children and to contact the concerned agencies if they felt any apprehensions about suspicious substances in the possession of their children.
