RIYADH - The Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA) announced that it had thwarted six attempts to smuggle more than 1.4 million Captagon pills at the Al-Haditha Port, on Friday. The authority explained that the quantity of Captagon pills was found hidden inside of a consignment, as they detected it through security techniques, in addition to the live means "police dogs" at the port. The authority explained that in the first smuggling attempt, 338,372 pills were found hidden inside the radiator of a truck. Meanwhile, 405,813 pills were found hidden in the floor of a truck in the second attempt, while in the third attempt, 303,488 pills were found with the same previous smuggling method. ZATCA added it has managed to thwart a fourth smuggling attempt, where 230,232 pills were found hidden and disguised as men's clothing consignment. In the fifth attempt, 119,767 pills were seized after the smuggler had hidden them inside the vehicle's tires. In the sixth attempt, the port managed to thwart 27,907 pills, and found hidden in the luggage of a passenger coming to the Kingdom, as he was detected coming by one of the buses. The authority clarified that after completing the seizure operations in coordination with the General Directorate of Narcotics Control (GDNC) to ensure the arrest of the recipients of the consignments. As a result, 4 people were arrested inside the Kingdom. The authority confirmed on doing its utmost to prevent and thwart any smuggling attempt, stressing that it continues to confiscate and tighten customs control over all imports and continues to combat smuggling in all its forms. The ZATCA called on everyone to communicate with it to report any information related to smuggling crimes through the Security Reports Center (1910), as the center receives security reports in complete secrecy, with a financial reward given to those who report if the reporting information is correct.
