Manama: Kuwait’s security authorities have foiled an attempt to smuggle in 160 kilogrammes of hashish from Iran.
The Drugs Control General Department was tipped off about a drug trafficker who was planning to push a huge amount of cannabis into the country by sea, the ministry's security information department said in a statement.
A task force was set up to monitor the situation and gather all the evidence related to the case, the statement, carried by Kuwait News Agency (Kuna) on Wednesday, added.
The trafficker, a Gulf national, was arrested with the drugs in his possession. During questioning, he gave the names of his two partners in the crime and led them to their residence. The two do not have a specific nationality, a reference to the Bidoon, the stateless people living in Kuwait.
The investigation revealed that the two partners were registered offenders. They both admitted they had often smuggled drugs into Kuwait via the sea.
The three smugglers and the narcotics, with a street value of about 300,000 Kuwaiti dinars, were referred to the competent authorities, the statement said.
The interior ministry said that it was resolutely committed to combating drug smuggling.
Kuwaiti authorities have been actively involved in the fight against drugs being smuggled into the country or using the country as a transit point for drug smuggling.
In their attempt to beat the vigilance of the security authorities, smugglers have resorted to various ideas to hide the drugs and get them into the country.
In March last year, drugs with a street value of around 10 million Kuwaiti dinars were seized by Kuwaiti authorities in two separate raids.
A container carrying detergents from Lebanon drew the attention of customs officials after it remained unclaimed at the Shuwaikh seaport for more than three months.
When it was opened for inspection, the customs officers discovered around five million pills carefully hidden under the detergent boxes.
In the second bust, customs officers at the airport found around two million pills hidden in 826 schools bags imported from Lebanon.
The cargo shipment that included 2,000 bags was claimed by a Syrian resident.
