Samples of the Crystal capsules hidden in the suspect’s guts
Customs inspectors at Dubai International Airport foiled two separate attempts of smuggling narcotics; the first of which included 651.5 grams of heroin seized from an African passenger. The other seizure was 72 capsules which contained Crystal narcotics found with an Asian passenger.
Details of the first operation started when a Customs inspector at Airport Terminal 1 suspected a luggage while being inspected by the checkup machines. An African passenger arrived at the Customs area with the luggage and it was searched manually. When he was asked whether he was bringing illegal items, he became frisky and acted suspiciously.
Thus, the inspector requested from the passenger to pull out the metal handle of the bag from the right side only to find 10 pieces wrapped with a duck tape and hidden inside the handle with a total weight of 295.25 grams of heroin. The other metal handle of the luggage on the left side was also extracted and this time 12 pieces of pure heroin were found weighing 365.25 grams. The total weight of the seized narcotics was 651.5 grams.
The suspect was interrogated by the investigators of the Passenger Operation Department at Dubai Customs. In the beginning, he denied the charges against him claiming that he bought this luggage from a store and that he had no idea about what was hidden inside of it.
Inline with the mutual coordination and cooperation between Dubai Customs and the Anti-Narcotics Department at the General Department of Dubai Police, the infiltrating passenger along with the narcotics and the seizure report were transferred to the General Department office at Dubai Int’l Airport. The further investigations confirmed that the suspect intended to hand in the narcotics to his accomplice who is of the same African origin as well.
Extracting Heroin from the luggage handle
As for the second smuggling attempt, an Asian passenger flying on a transit flight through Airport Terminal (2) was suspected when inspectors of the Passenger Operation Department at Dubai Customs were performing the regular inspection procedures. Nothing initially was found in his luggage when searched; however, due to the inspectors’ vigilance and alertness, the passenger was examined through the Body Scan machine which detected murky substances inside his guts.
When confronted and questioned about the nature of these substances, the passenger collapsed and confessed to swallowing 72 capsules of narcotics. He also said that he was on his way to another Asian country to deliver the narcotics to his accomplices there.
During the interrogations made by the investigators at the Passenger Operation Department at Dubai Customs, the passenger started to have stomachache and disposed 38 capsules of Crystal; the commonly used narcotics among some Asian origins. It appeared that the capsules contained269.8 grams of narcotics.
Eventually, the passenger, the seizure and the information he provided were all transferred to the Anti-Narcotics office at the Airport. The suspect was later admitted to the hospital and put under surveillance where he disposed the remaining capsules from his body, which were 34 capsules. And the total number of the capsules reached 72 weighing 601.2 grams of Crystal narcotics. Certainly, the necessary legal procedures against the passenger were taken.
Inline with its responsibility being at the forefront to protect the society from all kinds of smuggling narcotics and other prohibited substances and products, Dubai Customs is very keen on developing the employees and the inspectors’ competencies by enrolling them in several specialized training courses in addition to equipping them with the most advanced inspection and checkup tools. These training opportunities have contributed much to increasing Customs inspectors’ expertise and knowledge about such complicated smuggling attempts and how to uncover them.