ROP drug busts lead to seven arrests; marijuana, opium, other contraband goods seized

Energy Wednesday 25/October/2017 21:15 PM
By: Times News Service
ROP drug busts lead to seven arrests; marijuana, opium, other contraband goods seized

Muscat: Royal Oman Police (ROP) has conducted raids across the Sultanate that resulted in large amounts of marijuana, hashish and other psychotropic substances being confiscated by police and seven people of various nationalities being arrested.
The General Directorate for the Control of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances arrested an individual in Seeb for possessing 192 packets of marijuana and hashish for the purpose for sale and abuse, while an Arab national in Bausher was arrested with 1,437 tablets of psychotropic substances.
In Dhofar, police arrested a suspect with a quantity of cannabis. Meanwhile, police in North Batinah, in cooperation with the General Directorate for the Control of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, managed to arrest a gang of four drug traffickers.
An official ROP source said, “Four suspects of Asian nationality were arrested after smuggling drugs by sea to the Sultanate and hiding them in Shinas and Al Suwaiq. Police seized 21 kilogrammes of cannabis, one kilogramme of heroin, three kilogrammes of opium poppy, and a quantity of psychotropic substances.”
Meanwhile, three cases of illegal possession and smuggling of alcohol and tobacco were reported by ROP on Wednesday.
The Department of Criminal Investigation and Seeb police arrested two people of Asian nationality with a quantity of alcoholic beverages, chewed tobacco and prohibited cigarettes. The accused were referred to judicial authorities to complete the legal proceedings initiated against them. Police also thwarted two tobacco and cigarette smuggling attempts.
Northern Batinah police foiled an attempt by a driver of a vehicle to smuggle more than 550 packets of tobacco products into Oman, which were hidden in specially created storage areas in the vehicle’s cabin. The accused also confessed to using the travel documents of one of his relatives while trying to enter the Sultanate.
In another case, customs officers in Wadi Al Mozli thwarted an attempt to smuggle more than 100 boxes of prohibited cigarettes that were hidden in the fuel tank of a four-wheel drive vehicle.