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Dubai: Police discovered a huge haul of heroin worth Dh6 million hidden in cartons of oranges from Pakistan which were on their way to China.
Seven people who attempted to smuggle the heroin in 3,500 boxes of oranges were arrested.
The pure heroin weighed 24kg, said Colonel Khalil Ebrahim Al Mansouri, Director of Criminal Investigation Department (CID). It also arrested two gangs, of three Asians and four Africans in connection with the case.
Transit
"Dubai was only a transit point for the suspects, as they wanted to send the shipment of narcotics to China," Al Mansouri told journalists on Monday.
Colonel Al Mansouri said the CID received a tip-off about some Asian men who worked at a vegetable shop in Al Aweer agreeing to bring narcotics and transit them to China.
He said teams from the department set up a trap to arrest the gang in the act. They waited until the shipment arrived through one of the ports. The gang then took the shipment to the vegetable shop and unloaded the containers.
CID arrested them as they were unloading the containers. The team searched the container which contained the boxes of oranges, but could not find any narcotics and the three Asian men did not reveal any information to help them retrieve the drugs.
"The team's long experience in this field and their security sense helped them discover where the narcotics were hidden. They were hidden professionally between the layers of the upper cover of the cardboard boxes in which the oranges were packed," Colonel Al Mansouri said.
There were around 200 grams of heroin hidden in each box. The team noticed that the boxes that contained narcotics had a special mark with the number 60 on them.
The leader of the Asian gang confessed to receiving the shipment and told police about his plan to hand it over to an African gang.
The CID set up another trap to catch the African gang, who came to receive the shipment and were arrested red-handed. Colonel Al Mansouri said the men were in organised gangs who came on visit visas to complete this mission. They have been referred to the Public Prosecution.
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