UAE nabs 9 drug smugglers with massive heroin, narcotic pills

Nine Arab and African drug smugglers were arrested in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for possessing 13 kilogram of heroin and 34,000 narcotic pills, state news agency WAM reported on Saturday.

The arrests were the result of five separate operations carried out in February and March this year across the UAE.

These operations were executed by UAE's anti-narcotics agency in coordination with its neighbour country Oman.

The Gulf Arab state UAE shares a 450 kilometer long, mostly mountainous and deserted border with its south-eastern neighbour Oman.

Colonel Saeed Abdullah Al Suwaidi, the chief of the anti-narcotics federal directorate general at the ministry of interior, said "the vigilant anti-narcotic teams had dealt a severe blow to drug traffickers thanks to the constructive cooperation with their counterparts in Oman."

Al-Suwaidi said the team has foiled first two attempts to smuggle 12,500 kilogram of heroin into UAE by two Arab and African suspects upon Oman's intelligence.

In the third and fourth operations, he said, two African women were arrested for possessing 500 grams of heroin while 22,500 narcotic tablets were captured in Dubai. Three Arab suspects were apprehended.

In the final operation, which took place in Ras Al Khaimah, 9,000 narcotic tablets were seized in possession of two Arab and African suspects.

The report did not reveal the exact nationalities of the nine suspects.

Drug traffickers and drug sellers can face life sentences or even capital punishment if convicted by a UAE court.