DUBAI // Heroin worth thousands of dirhams was found inside the stomach of a man at Dubai International Airport by customs officials using a full body scanner.
The scanners picked up 95 bags of the drug which had been swallowed by the man. And his arrest led to the seizure of more than 3kg of heroin in hundreds of other capsules inside five other suspects, police said yesterday. The total haul was worth Dh550,000.
The first man was pulled aside and scanned because he was acting suspiciously; the scanners are not used on the general public, officials said.
"We have three scanners at all the terminals, which are used for suspected traffickers. They have been set up in compliance with the Civil Aviation Authority's regulations and are completely safe for the passengers and inspectors," said Ali Al Meghawi, the director of airport operations at Dubai Customs.
Mr Al Meghawi added that 30 more trained sniffer dogs were being added to the 35 Dubai Customs already uses
The scanners were used to help arrest the six male suspects over about three weeks, police said.
On July 8, an Afghan traveller identified as O?A arrived at Dubai Airport from Pakistan.
“Customs inspectors, trained to spot erratic behaviour and study passengers’ body language, flagged the suspect and searched his luggage,” Mr Al Meghawi said.
“O?A incessantly denied carrying any contraband but was later taken to the body scanner, which revealed the ingested capsules.”
O?A had swallowed 95 bags, which filled his stomach to the top, officials said. Police said five methadone pills were also found in his luggage.
“Investigations with the suspect revealed that he was due to meet with a second suspect who was going to store it before handing the drugs to a third suspect in exchange for Dh2,000,” said Maj Mohammed Humaid, who led the operation.
The details provided by that second suspect, the Afghan K?N, led to the arrest of a third man, O?O, who was detained on July 11 in a covert operation at an Al Quoz restaurant, said Col Khalid Al Kawari, the deputy director of the Dubai Police Anti-Narcotics Department.
“The day after his arrest, O?O received a call from the fourth suspect, who declared that he had arrived in Abu Dhabi with more capsules and that he will be in Al Mafraq district of the capital,” Col Al Kawari said.
S?I was arrested by Abu Dhabi police on July 12, and 10 capsules of heroin were found with him. Seventy more remained in his body, officials said.
O?O then received two more calls on July 21 and 24 from the fifth and sixth suspects, who had ingested more than 150 capsules, police said.
Police said the narcotics were to be transported to a neighbouring GCC country and Europe.
All six men have been referred to prosecution to face trafficking charges, Col Al Kawari said yesterday.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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