Yemen’s border authorities announced on Thursday that they busted an attempt to smuggle over 1.5 million narcotic pills from the Houthi-held capital Sanaa to Saudi Arabia.
Officials suspect that such large amounts of narcotics is an indication that the Captagon industry and the manufacturing of other drugs could have moved from Syria to Yemeni regions held by the Iran-backed Houthi militias.
The Captagon industry had thrived for years under the now ousted regime of President Bashar al-Assad. He was overthrown by opposition factions in December. Iranian militias had used the Captagon trade to finance their operations in Syria.
Head of security at the Wadiah border crossing Omair al-Azab said the drugs were concealed inside a cooling truck.
Security forces at the crossing were suspicious of the truck and they searched it thoroughly, leading to the bust, he added.
During preliminary investigations, the truck driver confessed that the pills belonged to a smuggler in Sanaa, continued Azab.
He was tasked with delivering the illicit cargo to a person, whose identity he did not know, in the Saudi city of Sharurah.
He revealed that authorities have foiled several drug smuggling attempts in recent months. They seized a ton of cannabis, 15,000 Captagon pills, four kilograms of methamphetamine, and 27,300 other pills.
In February, over three tons of different drugs, seized during various busts, were destroyed in the presence of representatives of concerned Yemeni and Saudi authorities, he added.
Drugs smuggling gangs resort to innovative ways to conceal their illicit cargo, such as hiding them in watermelons, spare tires and the front seats of vehicles, Azab said.
Security forces at the border will remain on alert for any suspicious activity and to defend the nation, he vowed.
Attache at the Yemen Embassy in Riyadh Saleh al-Baidhani warned that such smuggling attempts may be a sign that Captagon was now being manufactured by the Houthis in Yemen.
This demands intensified border security and greater security cooperation between the legitimate Yemeni government and Saudi authorities, he told Asharq Al-Awsat.
He confirmed that trucks smuggling drugs were coming from areas held by the Houthis.
Baidhani slammed the drug trade that is “destroying Arab youth”.
