Nine arrested in biggest drug bust of the year in UAE

Drug combat authorities in the United Arab Emirates have seized 213kg of amphetamine, a stimulant, valued at Dh40 million from an Iranian ship, an official at the UAE Ministry of Interior announced. “This is the biggest drug bust of its kind in 2011 and the second big one in the last three years worldwide,” international expert at the United Nation’s Drug and Crime office Dr. Wadia Maalouf said. The drug was on an Iranian ship destined for Malaysia and made a port stop in Sharjah on October 12, 2011, the UAE daily (Gulf News) reported. “The ship was carrying heavy equipment, which was not revealed, so we got suspicious. Immediately, the Federal Drug combating Department and the drug combating departments in Sharjah and Dubai alongside with the Armed Forces coastal guard coordinated among each other,” director general of the Federal drug combating department Lieutenant colonel Saeed Al Suwaidi said. The police started monitoring the ship and the activities of its personnel, awaiting a contact with others involved in the operation. “We monitored the ship and let it sail to Dubai as planned so as to reach the person to whom it was to be delivered. The police monitored the criminal who imported the shipment and delivered it to another one who was preparing the shipment to sail to Malaysia. The arrest was made in Dubai,” Al Suwaidi added. Nine people were apprehended and the substance, valued at Dh40 million, was confiscated. Officials said further investigations are being conducted. “Joint efforts with the proper authorities in Iran and Malaysia are being made, but details cannot be provided due to sensitivity of this matter and the ongoing investigation,” Al Suwaidi said. A stimulant drug, amphetamine, causes increased alertness and is also used recreationally as a performance enhancer. “An overdose can lead to death. It can also lead those who take it to commit crimes or behave in ways that endangers their lives and the lives of others,” Dr. Maalouf said. Medical experts explained that usage of amphetamine leads to a state of euphoria and a sense of well being. “However it is followed by depression, anxiety and irritability,” Dr. Tarek Honeine, consultant at a government hospital told the Gulf News. “This drug develops psychological dependencies. In addition to restlessness it can produce a paranoid psychosis anxiety and cause possible brain damage and death,” he said. “There have been incidences of high fever, collapse, dehydration in some parties with acute kidney and liver failure as a result of its usage.”