ABU DHABI // Police arrested two suspects with 2.6 million captagon tablets outside a villa in the capital.
Abu Dhabi Police said on Tuesday that the suspects, both from Arab countries, were arrested while loading the drugs into a lorry from a villa under construction on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi.
Brig Gen Rashid Boursheid, director of CID, said investigations and surveillance in coordination with the Dubai Police anti-narcotics department showed that the drugs had been brought to the UAE illegally and were going to be smuggled abroad.
This was the latest in a series of seizures involving captagon, an illicit amphetamine-type substance whose chemical name is fenethylline.
In December, Dubai Police arrested three Saudi Arabians caught with more than seven million captagon pills, while two Arab suspects were caught with 6.5 million capsules in the same month. Last year’s largest raid took place in November, involving three Syrian men trying to smuggle 17 million captagon pills through the UAE via Jebel Ali port.
Also on Tuesday, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, issued a law forming the Irada Rehab and Treatment Centre.
The centre will offer rehabilitation and treatment to drug users and help them reintegrate into society, the Dubai Media Office said.
The centre will also develop policies for rehabilitation and treatment for drug addiction.
tsubaihi@thenational.ae
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