A previous drug bust by Ras Al Khaimah Police. Photo: RAK Police
A previous drug bust by Ras Al Khaimah Police. Photo: RAK Police
A previous drug bust by Ras Al Khaimah Police. Photo: RAK Police
A previous drug bust by Ras Al Khaimah Police. Photo: RAK Police

Crystal meth, hash and Lyrica most common drugs seized, UAE police say


Salam Al Amir
  • English
  • Arabic

Ras Al Khaimah Police have carried out a campaign against suspected drug dealers.

Raids by the force’s anti-narcotics department resulted in 185 arrests and the confiscation of nearly 429 kilograms of drugs, including 72,000 tablets, last year.

Arrests were made with help from other local police forces. Police said by using advanced technology, they were able to trace suspects who promoted drugs on social media.

WhatsApp text and voice messages that were detected by officers offered links to hashish, crystal methamphetamine and gabapentin, an anti-anxiety medicine sold under the brand name Lyrica.

Dealers sold each ten grams of hashish for Dh400 and charged the same amount for five grams of crystal meth, a video by the force showed.

The footage shows a conversation between a drug dealer and a potential buyer.

“All is available,” the dealer is heard saying.

Suspects were found and their movements kept under surveillance.

The video shows officers as they remove drugs that were stashed in a washing machine during one of the raids.

“This is the outcome of the dedication and efficiency of the work team assigned to these tasks,” said Colonel Ibrahim Jassim Al Tunaiji, head of the Anti-Narcotics Department.

He said they will continue to work with police forces at home and abroad to foil drug smuggling.

The senior officer urged families to supervise their children and monitor any behavioural changes that may signal they were using drugs.

“Families play a major role in protecting children from falling victims to drug addiction,” he said.

“That is by raising children’s awareness, knowing their friends, and monitoring their behaviour.”

He said educational institutions and youth clubs are also responsible and need to keep youngsters occupied — especially during the summer break.

The Gulf's war on captagon: in pictures

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Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea

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When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.

Your love is ruling over my heart

Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it

Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home

You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness

Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins

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The rules on fostering in the UAE

A foster couple or family must:

  • be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
  • not be younger than 25 years old
  • not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
  • be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
  • have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
  • undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
  • A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
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Updated: June 19, 2022, 9:09 PM`