logo
VIDEO: Sharjah Police dismantle international drug gang operating between Canada and Spain

VIDEO: Sharjah Police dismantle international drug gang operating between Canada and Spain

Gulf Today20-07-2025
The General Command of the Sharjah Police successfully dismantled an international criminal network involved in the smuggling and peddling of narcotic substances. This operation was conducted across a broad geographical area, extending from Toronto to Spain, and encompassing the entire coastline of the country.
The security operation was characterised by its precision and thoroughness, leading to the seizure of a substantial quantity of narcotics and psychotropic substances. The total weight of the seized contraband amounted to 131 kilograms.
In addition to these seizures, the operation resulted in the arrest of seven suspects within the country's borders. Notably, one of the suspects, an individual of Arab nationality, had been exploiting his spouse and two children as a means of concealing his involvement in the smuggling activities, the MoI said.
The case commenced with the monitoring of an Arab suspect who had frequently visited the country with his family. His movements and organised meetings with local people were meticulously monitored, and the subsequent investigation revealed the network and led to the arrest of its members in precise ambushes carried out by anti-narcotics teams.
According to the Ministry of Interior's statement, the suspect admitted to playing a pivotal role in the smuggling of the shipment, working in cooperation with his wife to use the 'coordinated locations' method to conceal and distribute the narcotics.
As the investigation progressed, five additional suspects of Asian nationalities were caught and subsequently convicted of involvement in the same network's operations involving the reception, promotion, and peddling of narcotics. Information also led to the discovery of a maritime smuggling route linking the port of Toronto in Canada to the port of Malaga in Spain, all the way to one of the country's ports. A recently arrived shipment was intercepted within a container loaded with automotive spare parts, which had been concealed with the intention of smuggling the goods under the name of one of the suspects.
The total amount of items seized included 131 kilograms of narcotic and psychotropic substances and 9,945 capsules of narcotic drugs.
Furthermore, a number of tools and techniques that were utilised in the domains of promotion and location identification had been also seized.
The suspects have been referred to the relevant judicial authorities.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of the Interior, in conjunction with its counterparts in multiple nations, persists in its pursuit of the remaining network members beyond the territorial borders, while concurrently undertaking legal measures to finalise the dismantling of its international branches.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Dutch intelligence report identifies Israel as a foreign threat for first time
Dutch intelligence report identifies Israel as a foreign threat for first time

Middle East Eye

timea day ago

  • Middle East Eye

Dutch intelligence report identifies Israel as a foreign threat for first time

The Netherlands has named Israel as a foreign threat to the country's national security for the first time, citing disinformation campaigns endangering the lives of Dutch citizens. A report published by the National Coordinator for Security and Counter-terrorism (NCTV) says that Israel attempted to influence public opinion and politics in the country by circulating documents directly to Dutch journalists and politicians instead of using the official diplomatic channels. The alleged disinformation campaign occurred after the clashes that followed the football match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam last November. Close to 30 people were wounded as Israeli fans were caught on video vandalising property, threatening and assaulting people, as well as chanting racist, anti-Arab slogans. The Israeli authorities branded the riots as antisemitic and ordered two rescue planes to the Netherlands to evacuate the fans. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters A week later, the mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, took back her comments describing the violence as a "pogrom", saying that Israel "bypassed" Dutch authorities regarding the details of the events and their framing. The NCTV report said that the document circulated by Israel-affiliated agencies also contained "unusual and unwanted personal details" about Dutch citizens. The country's ministries of justice, security and foreign affairs warned that these individuals could face threats, harassment and even physical attacks. The NCTV further voiced concerns over mounting threats from both Israel and the US toward the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The report said that this could potentially disrupt the court's work. Last year, the ICC issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over their role in alleged war crimes in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories. ICC lawyer linked to Netanyahu advisor warned Khan to drop war crimes probe or be 'destroyed' Read More » The court has since faced significant pressure from the US and Israel to drop the investigation. The Netherlands hosts key international legal institutions, such as the International Court of Justice, and bears a special responsibility to protect them from external influence. The NCTV report comes as the Dutch government - a traditional Israeli ally - has become increasingly critical of the country over its war on Gaza and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the besieged enclave. Along with Ireland and Spain, the Netherlands has urged the European Union to reevaluate its ties with Israel due to its war on Gaza, accusing the country of violating the human rights provisions in the EU-Israel association agreement. In February 2024, The Hague court of appeals ordered the Dutch government to stop the export of F-35 fighter jet components to Israel. The court raised concerns that the weapons may be used to breach international humanitarian law. However, despite the court's decision, there have been reports that the Netherlands is still supporting the supply chain of Israel's version of the F-35 fighter jet.

Inside the drugs factory: How captagon is fuelling the war in Sudan
Inside the drugs factory: How captagon is fuelling the war in Sudan

Middle East Eye

timea day ago

  • Middle East Eye

Inside the drugs factory: How captagon is fuelling the war in Sudan

Deep in an industrial wasteland on the eastern bank of the Nile stand three unremarkable, half-finished buildings surrounded by a minefield. For months, nearby residents were warned by paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters to stay away from this walled compound. A glance inside reveals why: machines and chemical products that the Sudanese authorities say were used to produce around 1,000 captagon pills an hour. Fashionable with fighters and partygoers in the Middle East during the past decade, the cheaply produced and addictive amphetamine, which heightens concentration, increases physical stamina and induces euphoria, has been the scourge of Arab governments. The RSF, according to security sources, either gives it away to its fighters to increase alertness and suppress hunger or sells it to civilians for profit. Until December, Syria was the primary production and export hub for captagon. But the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government, which was heavily involved in the industry, exposed and shut down a raft of captagon laboratories and the routes used by its smugglers. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Although captagon production may have been badly affected by the end of the Syrian civil war, 2,000km to the southeast, another conflict has been providing fresh opportunities. How captagon is reaching Sudan Earlier this year, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), which has been at war with the RSF since April 2023, forced the paramilitaries from Khartoum and the capital's surrounding eponymous state. The area around al-Jaili oil refinery, which is north of Khartoum Bahri, was among the first territories to be taken in the offensive. And it was there, in February, that this captagon factory was discovered. A satellite image from 14 April 2023 shows the walled compound. The inset shows the building containing the equipment and chemicals, taken from a video shot earlier this year (Google Earth/Sudan News/X screengrab) The facility contains five machines. Two of those - a tablet press and an industrial mixer - had been in use when it was abandoned. A fine white residue lines parts of the tablet press. 'We also discovered pills inside it,' Major-General Jalal al-Din Hamza of the anti-narcotics police tells Middle East Eye. According to Hamza, those tablets bore the hilelein, the double crescent symbol, which has become the unofficial trademark of illegal captagon production. The other three machines were still packaged in wooden boxes and had not yet been used. Beside the used tablet press is the crate that the machine appears to have arrived in. On one side, a paper shipping label suggests it was imported via Amass Middle East Shipping Services, a Dubai-based company. Entering the freight identifier number on the label into Amass' online tracking system yields no results. The top row shows an industrial mixer and tablet press that were in use when the facility was discovered. The bottom row shows machines that had not yet been fully unpacked (Daniel Hilton/MEE) MEE asked Amass Middle East Shipping Services for comment but did not receive a response. The RSF also did not respond to requests for comment. Dubai is a major port for shipping along the Red Sea. The RSF is known to have close ties to the UAE. Although the UAE denies backing the RSF by providing it with weapons and other material assistance, there is mounting evidence that Emirati-supplied arms continue to enter Sudan. MEE shared images of the machines with Caroline Rose, a captagon expert at the New Lines Institute, based in Washington. "My biggest takeaway is that the equipment flagged in the photos is extremely similar to the baking/cooking/scientific equipment found at Syrian laboratories in the last year," she said. 'He was up all day and all night jumping' Elsewhere in the compound is a large, dark, concrete room, carpeted by hundreds of packets of white powder. The bags come in two kinds: one is labelled as veterinary food supplements, the other as electrolytes for animals. Both say they were produced in Syria and are not intended for human consumption. MEE attempted to find any examples of the brand names on the packets that have been seen elsewhere, such as PropioTech and Technomix Plus, without success. The distributor listed on the packets, Hi Pharm Veterinary Medicines Co, does not appear on Syria's business registry. Hi Pharm is listed as having a Yahoo email address, which MEE tried to contact, only for the message to bounce back. It also carries an address in Barzeh, a Damascus suburb, 'next to the Scientific Research Center'. Sudanese police say they are investigating whether the ingredients listed on the packets - an array of vitamins and minerals - could be used to make captagon. Italian authorities discover a huge shipment of captagon in Naples in July 2020 (AFP) Research by MEE suggests otherwise, as none of the ingredients named are used to produce either amphetamine or theophylline - the two substances that make fenethylline, as captagon is also known. Moreover, Rose notes, they are 'different (in terms of both the levels of vitamins and which ones are included) from traditional veterinary nutritional packets'. The powder may be an example of dry captagon ingredients, known as precursor material, disguised as a veterinary food supplement or electrolyte and ready to be made into pills. 'Maybe they just dumped precursor materials into these packets and, you know, just essentially said: 'Hey, look, if it's tableted, it's tableted and no big deal,'' Rose says. Captagon tablets often contain zinc, copper, caffeine and other materials that have found their way, intentionally or not, into the mix. 'I don't think that these syndicates really care about some of the additional chemical materials that are added,' Rose adds. 'They're just looking to crush up materials and make pills. I wonder if that was kind of the game plan here: just dump the precursor materials into these packets and then try and make as many captagon pills as possible.' MEE understands that one member of the Sudanese security forces drank a glass of water with two spoons of the powder mixed in 'and was awake for two days' - not the behaviour of someone who had consumed electrolytes. 'He was up all day and all night jumping,' a military source said. Captagon from Sudan heading for the Gulf? Hamza, the police officer, says captagon use was not widespread in Sudan before the conflict began, 'but it increased violently during the war'. The first lab uncovered was in 2015 in Jabal Awliya, 45km south of Khartoum, with a reported production capacity of over 5,000 tablets per hour. Three months before the outbreak of war in April 2023, another facility, this time even larger, was found in eastern Blue Nile state. Police say the factory in al-Jaili is the largest discovered since April 2023. Its discovery follows that of another, also found north of Khartoum, six months earlier. Puzzlingly, a huge hole, several metres wide and deep, has been dug inside the compound. Satellite images show it was not present on 14 April 2023, one day before the war broke out. 'We suspect they were preparing to use it to store thousands of pills,' Hamza says. He would not say whether the captagon was being manufactured for export, suggesting such information is sensitive and investigations are ongoing. A member of the Sudanese Armed Forces stands beside the huge hole mysteriously dug in the compound (Sudan News/X screengrab) However, the collapse of the Syrian market has left a massive hole in the industry (more than 200 million tablets have been discovered and destroyed by Syria's new rulers). The lucrative Gulf market is just a hop over the Red Sea. A recent report by the New Lines Institute noted that the discoveries in Syria were not followed by the arrests of producers, smugglers and distributors. 'The technical knowledge to produce captagon remains intact and could be redeployed elsewhere,' it said. Rose says captagon laboratories have been busted in Sudan almost every year since 2022. 'We're not seeing other labs in neighbouring countries,' she says. 'For a while, the assumption was these are lone-wolf actors, maybe there is a bit of spillover from Syria. 'But if there's packaging materials and whatnot that is originating from Syria, there could be a closer connection here to both the Assad regime but also Syria-based criminal networks.'

Dubai Police extradite two international fugitives to France
Dubai Police extradite two international fugitives to France

Dubai Eye

time4 days ago

  • Dubai Eye

Dubai Police extradite two international fugitives to France

Dubai Police have extradited two internationally wanted suspects to France for their involvement in serious transnational crimes, including attempted fraud and drug trafficking. The individuals were arrested in Dubai following red notices issued by INTERPOL and Europol. The handover was carried out in coordination with the UAE Ministry of Interior, Dubai Public Prosecution, and the Ministry of Justice, which received international arrest warrants for the suspects. This brings the total number of extraditions to France by Dubai Police in 2025 to 10, with charges ranging from murder and armed robbery to money laundering and leading criminal organisations. Dubai Police reaffirmed their commitment to global law enforcement cooperation, highlighting the role of coordinated field efforts and the use of advanced tracking technologies by their criminal investigation and data analysis teams. #News | Dubai Police extradite Two Wanted Individuals to French Authorities for Attempted Fraud and Drug Trafficking Details: #InternationalCooperation #CombattingCrime — Dubai Policeشرطة دبي (@DubaiPoliceHQ) July 25, 2025

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store