More than 11 tonnes of drugs were seized last year, thanks to the efforts of UAE authorities.
This includes three tonnes of hashish a Pakistani gang was planning to smuggle out of Karachi.
Information passed to Pakistani authorities by their UAE counterparts last February led to the seizure of 3,008 kilograms of the drug and the arrest of two suspects, said Col Saeed Al Suwaidi, the director general of the Federal Anti-Narcotics Directorate.
In September, the UAE was tipped off about a hashish stash in Karachi. After a months-long investigation by Pakistan’s anti-drug services, 603kg of the drug was seized, with another 540kg recovered later.
The UAE’s coordination with Iran’s drugs agency stopped 7.2 tonnes of heroin, opium and hashish being smuggled on a ship in Iranian waters.
A four-member gang was planning to take the drugs to the Arabian Gulf and Africa.
In the GCC, two attempts to smuggle heroin capsules, weighing 500 grams each, werefoiled.
The suspects were arrested in cooperation with Omani authorities.
The Federal Anti-Narcotics Department also informed their peers in Saudi Arabia about an Asian man who tried to smuggle 769kg of heroin into the kingdom last November.
The department was also informed about an Asian who was planning to smuggle heroin into a GCC state.
All GCC airports and border crossings were tipped off and the suspect was arrested in Qatar with about 1kg of heroin in 105 capsules.
newsdesk@thenational.ae