Customs officials in Dubai foiled an attempt to smuggle 662 kilograms of drugs onboard a dhow - the biggest haul seized at the coastal borders.
On Tuesday, the authorities said the narcotics were found carefully hidden on a vessel in Dubai.
Officers from Creek and Deira Wharfage Customs Centre, which operates under the Sea Customs Management, found the drugs with the help of sniffer dogs and through use of artificial intelligence technology and drones.
“The customs operations room at the Sea Customs Centre Management studied and analysed all intelligence data that had been collected about a dhow coming to the country carrying a suspicious shipment,” Dubai Customs said on Tuesday.
The vessel was flagged as ‘very high risk’ and tracked. When it reached the port, the dhow was searched thoroughly.
“The drugs were concealed skilfully in a secret stash in the vessel. Using the mobile customs laboratory, the recovered contraband was initially screened for drugs and the test result turned out positive,” Dubai Customs said.
The seized drugs consisted of 306.44kg of crystal meth, 201.44kg of opium and cannabis, and 122.72kg of narcotic pills and psychotropic substances and 32.62kg of heroin.
“As part of our strategic role in protecting the society, we stand firm and alert against any smuggling attempts through different borders," said Ahmed Musabih, director general of Dubai Customs
"This new seizure is an example of how efficient our people work in these difficult times in which we face the spread of the Covid-19.”
Abdullah Busnad, executive director of Customs Inspection Division at Dubai Customs said the customs control team, Siyaj, recently introduced an advanced tracking system to help catch smuggled contraband.
“We have developed our customs inspection and examination capacities to a highly progressive level, and this helps us easily target and intercept high-risk shipments," he said.
Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.
Is it worth it? We put cheesecake frap to the test.
The verdict from the nutritionists is damning. But does a cheesecake frappuccino taste good enough to merit the indulgence?
My advice is to only go there if you have unusually sweet tooth. I like my puddings, but this was a bit much even for me. The first hit is a winner, but it's downhill, slowly, from there. Each sip is a little less satisfying than the last, and maybe it was just all that sugar, but it isn't long before the rush is replaced by a creeping remorse. And half of the thing is still left.
The caramel version is far superior to the blueberry, too. If someone put a full caramel cheesecake through a liquidiser and scooped out the contents, it would probably taste something like this. Blueberry, on the other hand, has more of an artificial taste. It's like someone has tried to invent this drink in a lab, and while early results were promising, they're still in the testing phase. It isn't terrible, but something isn't quite right either.
So if you want an experience, go for a small, and opt for the caramel. But if you want a cheesecake, it's probably more satisfying, and not quite as unhealthy, to just order the real thing.
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
More on Quran memorisation:
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The years Ramadan fell in May
