Cairo: Saudi anti-drugs police have aborted an attempt by a gang linked to Yemen’s Al Houthi militia to smuggle 1,652kg of hashish into the kingdom, an official said.
The General Directorate for Narcotics Control (GDNC) foiled the plan to smuggle the illicit substance into the kingdom through the Arabian Sea and Yemen, a GDNC spokesman added, according to the Saudi news agency SPA.
“The necessary measures were taken according to a joint security plan with the General Directorate for the Border Guard,” he added. “This criminal conspiracy was aborted and a haul of 1,652kg of the hashish drug was seized,” he said.
The smugglers and the intended recipients of the haul were arrested in the Saudi regions of Najran, Jizan, Mecca and Qasim, according to the official.
The offenders are three Saudi citizens and two Yemeni nationals.
Drug trafficking is an offence punishable by death in Saudi Arabia.
The kingdom is leading an Arab military alliance against Iran-aligned Al Houthis who have plunged Yemen in a devastating conflict after staging a coup against the internationally recognised government and overrun parts of the impoverished country, including the capital Sana’a in late 2014.
