Watch: Saudi Arabia busts drug haul in pomegranate shipment

Cairo: Saudi customs authorities said they had foiled an attempt to smuggle around 932,980 drug Captagon pills in a pomegranate shipment.

The haul was uncovered at the Saudi Duba port where the cargo coming from outside the kingdom had undergone customs procedures, the Saudi Zaka, Tax and Customs Authority (Zatca) reported.

The illicit drugs were found hidden inside the cavities of the pomegranates, it added.

Two would-be recipients were arrested in connection with the attempt, Zatca said without revealing the origin of the shipment, or when the attempt was uncovered.

In recent months, Saudi Arabia has stepped up a crackdown on narcotics smuggling into the country and thwarted a series of attempts.

Earlier this month, Saudi customs officials said they had thwarted two attempts to smuggle 1.3kg of heroin into guts of two air travellers arriving in the kingdom.

The separate attempts were foiled at the King Abdulaziz airport in Jeddah and the King Khaled airport in Riyadh.

The haul was seized in coordination with the General Directorate of Narcotics Control, Zatca said.

Saudi customs officials last month said they had foiled an attempt to smuggle 114.9 kilos of hashish at a border crossing with Oman.

The haul had been hidden inside a pick-up truck coming to the kingdom via the Empty Quarter border crossing.

Zatca announced in August foiling at the Jeddah port an attempt to smuggle 2.2 million Captagon pills hidden into a cargo of baklava desserts. Two would-be recipients were arrested in connection to the haul.

In July, Saudi Arabia’s anti-drug police said they had thwarted in cooperation with their Omani counterpart an attempt to smuggle over 6 million amphetamine pills hidden in a shipment of pastry, citrus and nuts.

Drug smuggling and trafficking is an offence punishable by up to death in Saudi Arabia.