Kuwait dismantles Asian drug ring targeting school students

Cairo: Kuwaiti security authorities have dismantled a ring involved in peddling drugs in schools targeting students, a Kuwaiti newspaper has reported.

Citing what it termed “well-informed” sources, the paper said the ring was composed of Asian nationals.

According to the report, the Kuwaiti Interior Ministry had received tips-off that some persons, working as cleaning workers at an Asian school, sold drugs among students of the school and outside it.

“Following the information, the competent agencies at the ministry acted immediately, keeping surveillance on the criminal ring and after monitoring its members and verifying the correctness of the information, security men set up a tight ambush to catch them,” the sources said.

Initially, one member of the ring was caught in possession of drug substances before peddling them. Later, four people of three different Asian nationalities were arrested, they added.

“The Interior Ministry notified the Education Ministry of the incident and asked it to instruct schools not to employ violators of residency laws or wanted persons at education facilities,” the sources said. There was no official comment on the report.

In recent years, Kuwait has toughened a crackdown on drug smugglers and traffickers.

Earlier this week, a Kuwaiti criminal court sentenced a police officer to 14 years in prison on charges of trading in psychotropics.

The officer with a rank of lieutenant-colonel, was also accused of abus-ing his post to smuggle large quantities of narcotics into the country.

Two other Kuwaitis were sentenced to 15 and four years in jail respec-tively while an Iranian man was handed down a life sentence in the same case.