Sharjah Police seize Captagon pills and hashish worth Dh23m

A major drug plot aimed at selling three million Captagon pills and 120kg of hashish worth Dh23.5m has been thwarted by Sharjah Police.

Officers confiscated the haul and made 24 arrests during raids carried out with the support of forces from across the

Emirates. Captagon is among the most in-demand narcotics in the Middle East.

Millions of pills are intercepted by customs officials in the Gulf every month as the region continues operations against drug trafficking.

Criminal gangs from Bulgaria and Turkey are believed to have helped to introduce Captagon to the Middle East, where production has flourished in territory beyond the control of authorities in fragile states such as Syria and Lebanon.

Sharjah’s anti-narcotics team took action after being alerted about the activities of two gangs operating under a criminal network known as the Black Bags. They made arrests in two synchronised operations. The first focused on tracking a group of Asian suspects while the other monitored a gang of Arabs who were planning to distribute the pills.

Officers from Sharjah, Dubai and Ajman were part of the operation, said Lt Col Majid Al Asam, director of the Anti-Narcotics Department at Sharjah Police. “The success of these operations is attributed to the ongoing co-operation between the UAE’s anti-drug agencies and their readiness to tackle drug-related cases,” he said.

The gang were acting on the instructions of a drugs boss based overseas, police said.

Those arrested have been referred to prosecutors.