UAE helps nab social media drug pusher

The efforts by the Ministry of Interior in cooperation with the Pakistani police resulted in identifying the person who was sending messages through social media to sell drugs in the UAE.” Colonel Saeed Abdullah Al Suwaidi, Ministry of Interior

A drug dealer, who was promoting drugs in the UAE from Pakistan, using WhatsApp, has been arrested. The Pakistani police arrested the man in coordination with the UAE authorities after investigations revealed that he was selling the drugs to mobile phone users in the UAE.

The Ministry of Interior said in a statement issued on Monday that “scores of mobile users” in the country were receiving messages on social media that originated from Pakistan.

The Pakistani was allegedly promoting the sale of drugs and promised to deliver the narcotics to interested buyers in return for a bank transfer.

The Pakistani authorities identified the suspect as Irfan Q, who also confessed to using social media to promote drugs in the UAE. The suspect also revealed to authorities the other drug dealers he worked with.

“The efforts by the Ministry of Interior in cooperation with the Pakistani police resulted in identifying and tracking down of the person who was sending messages through social media to promote and sell drugs in the UAE,” said Colonel Saeed Abdullah Al Suwaidi, director-general, antinarcotics federal directorate general at the Ministry of Interior. “The ministry acted quickly in monitoring these social media messages — in coordination with a number of local and foreign bodies to track down the drug promoters — which helped in the arrest of the suspect.”

Al Suwaidi has warned people against responding to unsuspicious and fraudulent messages via WhatsApp and other social media networks, stressing that they are “deceptive means to steal people’s money”.