Mishal Al-Otaibi
RIYADH — The Directorate General of Narcotics Control has arrested eight people for drug dealing through social media.
The eight were running seven Twitter and Snapchat accounts using female identities to lure in young men.
The directorate tracked down the accounts and identified the users as Saudi men in their 30s living in different regions of the Kingdom. The directorate also arrested a young man who defamed the National Anti-Corruption Committee Nazaha through Twitter. The youth is being questioned and could face fine or imprisonment.
Last month Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, spokesman of the ministry of interior, announced that during the first four months of this Hijri year, 953 people involved in smuggling, transporting, receiving and trafficking drugs and psychotropics were arrested.
Of these, 258 were Saudis and 695 were of various other nationalities. While carrying out their tasks, security men faced armed resistance in several security operations which resulted in the martyrdom of one security man and injuries to 28 others. Five drug smugglers and dealers were killed and 13 others were injured.
The security operations resulted in the seizure of 26.5 million amphetamine tablets, 16.1 tons of hashish, 6.3 kg of crude heroin, 2.14 kg of heroin ready for distribution, 4.7 million narcotic tablets, 401.6 kg of cocaine, 3 kg of “shabu” (methamphetamine), 565.8 grams of opium, 339 various weapons, 8,497 bullets, and SR26,582,831 in cash.
Most of the drugs smuggled into the Kingdom are amphetamine tablets and hashish. Ninety to 100 percent of the seized hashish is smuggled through the land borders with Yemen. Amphetamine tablets, according to international reports, come via Syria.w
