Dubai Police bust gang, seize 41 kg heroin

Dubai Police's Anti-Narcotic Department has busted a drug-trafficking gang and seized 41kg of pure heroin in the city.

Brigadier Abdul Jaleel Mehdi, director of the Anti-narcotics Department, said the police received a tip-off that a Pakistani national identified as Jihnans A in possession of pure heroin was looking for a buyer at the Al Rafa area on May 28.

The department set up an undercover operation and arrested the suspect. Upon searching his residence at Al Satwa, a handbag containing 2.738kg of heroin was recovered.

During interrogation, the suspect said that he received the banned substance from a Pakistani national, Mohammad N.G.N, who had asked him to keep it at his place. He told the police that he had given a lift to Mohammad to Sharjah where he had hidden more drugs at a store in Industrial Area 6.

The second suspect, who was arrested at a hotel apartment in Naif area, confessed to giving the drugs to Jihnans, besides an Indian, Badr Uddin SH.

The police, however, could not recover any drugs from the industrial area as they had been moved to another hiding by Badr Uddin who was later arrested at Al Hamriya.

A search at the third suspect's residence at Al Rashidiya yielded four wood blocks containing 39kg of heroin worth Dh20 million. He told the police that the first suspect gave him the blocks and had told him that it contained 80 per cent pure heroin.

Brigadier Mehdi said that the purity of the seized heroin allows it to be mixed with other materials to increase the quantity.

He noted that a fourth suspect, who might have shipped the blocks with a furniture shipment, is still at large.

The suspects, three Pakistani and one Indian, carry residencies from a GCC country, he said, adding that the police are co-ordinating with the concerned authorities in that country.

He said the drugs and the wooden blocks were covered with carbon in an attempt to escape X-Ray detection.

Brigadier Mehdi pointed out that 467 people were arrested during the first five months of 2009 in cases of drug trafficking, consumption and possession as against 346 during the same period in 2008.

The number of drug-related cases handled had increased from 242 during the first five months of 2008 to 288 during the same period this year, he said.

The quantity of drugs seized also increased from 94kg in the first five months of last year to 133kg this year, he added.