Saudi Gazette Report

AL-WADIAH — The Yemeni border authorities announced the foiling of a huge cache of narcotic pills bound for Saudi Arabia from Sana’a. More than 1.5 million narcotic pills were seized hidden inside the roof of a refrigerated truck at the Saudi-Yemeni border crossing.

Brig. Gen. Omair Al-Azab, commander of the Border Security and Protection Battalion at Al-Wadiah Border Crossing, said that the drugs were found tightly hidden in a refrigerated truck. “The seizure took place at the 'weapons checkpoint' before the border crossing checkpoint, after the checkpoint personnel became suspicious of the truck. They searched it meticulously, which led to the discovery of the hidden drugs, he said.

"The truck driver admitted during initial investigations that the shipment of narcotic pills belonged to drug dealers in the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, and that his mission was limited to delivering them to the city of Sharurah in Saudi Arabia, and handing them over to another person whose identity is unknown to him. The seized items were confiscated from the driver and handed to the competent authorities to take the necessary legal measures," the official Yemeni news agency Saba reported quoting Brig. Gen. Al-Azab as saying.

For his part, Saleh Al-Baydani, advisor at the Yemen Embassy in Riyadh, warned that the seizure of these drug shipments coming from Houthi-controlled areas could be a dangerous indicator of the relocation of Captagon manufacturing and smuggling activities to Sana'a.