Three arrested in Dh16m Dubai amphetamine bust

More than 330,000 Captagon pills were uncovered at a warehouse in an industrial area of the city.

DUBAI // Three people have been arrested after 331,000 amphetamine pills worth more than Dh16 million were seized in a warehouse.

Maj Gen Khalil Al Mansouri, assistant to the head of CID, said it was one of the biggest busts of the year and a dangerous gang had been exposed.

Col Eid Hareb, director of the Dubai Police anti-narcotics department, said his unit received information that a large amount of captagon pills were being stored in Al Quoz.

The warehouse space belonged to two Arab suspects: M N M, 24, a truck driver, and K M G, 32, a manager at a private company.

Police said the men were trying to move the drugs out of the country. “In a short period of time, officers were able to locate the two suspects and they arrested them on the night of April 21 in one of the cafes in the Port Saeed area in Dubai,” Col Hareb said. “They admitted to hiding the drugs in Al Quoz.”

He said the drugs were hidden in a shipment of pizza ovens, and that the two men had admitted to receiving and moving the shipment on the instructions of the gang leader, B M G, 40. He is currently serving a sentence for drug charges in another GCC country.

Col Hareb said the fourth suspect, H S H, 35, was arrested on April 24 in Al Ain with the help of Abu Dhabi authorities.

He said H S H would take pills from the first two suspects and sell them, and that police found the pills in his home and vehicle.

M N M and K M G were charged with receiving and possessing narcotics. The gang leader was charged with drug dealing, and the fourth suspect was charged with possessing drugs with the intention to sell.