Cairo: Kuwaiti authorities said they had seized 5 million Captagon drug pills, which were hidden in three shipping containers.
The Interior Ministry said the haul had been uncovered Saturday at Shuwaikh Port in the containers coming from an Asian country that the ministry did not name.
Police investigations earlier found that there was an attempt to smuggle a large quantity of drugs stashed inside three containers of food items coming from an Asian country, the ministry added.
The value of the seized drugs amounts to around KD8 million or $26.4 million, Al Rai newspaper reported.
In recent months, Kuwait has stepped up efforts to thwart attempts to smuggle narcotics into the country.
Kuwait arrested 3,000 people in drug-related cases and seized record amounts of narcotics last year, Al Qabas newspaper had earlier reported.
The offenders included 1,500 Kuwaitis, 800 stateless Bidoons, 300 Egyptian expatriates and the rest belong to Syrian, Lebanese, Indian, Bangladeshi, and Pakistani nationalities, it added.
Around 866 more expatriates were deported from Kuwait for offences of taking drugs or possessing little amounts of drugs that did not warrant registering criminal cases against them.
During the last year, Kuwaiti anti-drug police seized nearly 1,700kg of hashish, the biggest haul in a single year.
They also seized around 10 million drug pills and 30 kilograms of heroin as well as 200 kilograms of methamphetamine, a highly addictive stimulant locally known as shabu.
Kuwait applies tough penalties in drug cases, including the death penalty.
