Saudi Arabia HAS Failed Efforts To Smuggle The Three Million Tablets Of Amphetamine

The efforts to smuggle amphetamines were thwarted by Saudi Arabia. (Source: SPA via The National News)

JAKARTA - Saudi Arabia has successfully thwarted efforts to smuggle more than three million amphetamine tablets into the kingdom, officials said.

Three Saudi Arabian citizens were arrested in Riyadh in connection with an attempt to smuggle 3,049,451 amphetamine tablets, said Muhammad Al Nujaidi, spokesman for the Directorate General of Narcotics Control, as reported by The National News on January 6.

He further explained that the tablets were hidden in the truck compartment. Initial legal action has been taken against the suspects and they have been brought to the Public Prosecutor.

Al Nujaidi said security operations against drug smuggling networks targeting Saudi Arabia's security and its youth were continuing.

He said the operation was carried out in coordination with officers from the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority.

It is known, a number of regions in the Middle East are facing the Captagon crisis, as production, trade, and drug consumption have soared in the last decade.

The synthetic amphetamine was first developed in the 1960s, as a treatment for hyperactive disorder with a deficit of attention.

In 1986, the manufacture of the Captagon was banned in almost every country, but the production of illegal drugs, or variants, continues.

It said Syria and Lebanon were several countries where the drug was produced. Regional security officials said most of the drugs passed through Jordan to get to Saudi Arabia, despite massive efforts by the Saudi authorities to intercept it, while significant proportions were used in Jordan.

Last year, the kingdom temporarily suspended all trade with Lebanon after a large number of drugs were found in fruit and vegetable shipments.