Smugglers fail in more than 4,000 attempts to beat vigilance of Abu Dhabi Customs staff
Abu Dhabi Customs inspectors foiled 4,044 attempts to smuggle illegal substances into the UAE in the first half of this year, it was revealed yesterday.
Items seized included drugs, prescription drugs and tobacco.
Mohammed Al Hameli, acting director general of Customs, attributed the success to evolving inspection procedures and the administration’s adoption of the best technology available.
Authorities recorded 333 attempts to smuggle drugs into the country, including more than 23,000 pills and almost 15,000 kilograms of cocaine, opium, marijuana and other narcotics.
The report showed most drug smuggling attempts were at Abu Dhabi International Airport.
In one case, Customs inspectors became suspicious of a woman, 28, who arrived from an unspecified Arab country. Her belongings were examined and 398 tablets were found hidden in medicine boxes.
Another traveller had 46 grams of marijuana in his shoes.
Inspectors at Abu Dhabi International Airport found a man, 42, travelling from North America with 31.64g of cocaine in dry batteries and medicine boxes.
There were also 80 attempts to smuggle counterfeit goods, 34 of which happened at Al Ghuwaifat on the Saudi border.
Twenty-six illegal immigrants were foiled at Abu Dhabi airport, and 35 at Al Ghuwaifat and Mezyad.
Using radiation detectors, inspectors at Al Ghuwaifat stopped a truck in which two people were hidden in secret compartments.
And two lorry drivers were arrested in Al Ain after trying to bring in three people without visas.
Customs officials at Abu Dhabi airport, Al Ghuwaifat, Madheef and Khatam Al Shakla also thwarted 20 attempts to smuggle money into the country.
In one case inspectors found Dh102,500 and US$200 hidden in the luggage of a traveller.
Customs also foiled 42 attempts to illegally bring alcohol into the country, with almost half of the incidents occurring at the airport. More than 7,400 bottles of alcohol were found in metal tubes on a truck.
Forty tobacco-smuggling attempts were also thwarted and 427 people with prescription and expired drugs were stopped.
Most of the seizures – 216 – took place at the airport.
The report also recorded cases of commercial fraud that were halted and five attempts of imitation and infringement of intellectual property rights.