Dubai: Dubai Customs foiled an attempt to smuggle 5.2kg of heroin stuffed in 477 capsules that were hidden inside the guts of seven suspects.

The smuggling attempts took place at Terminal 2.

Divided into two flights, the suspects coordinated to complete the luggage formalities at different times, some of which would take place during the shift change of Dubai Customs employees, in an attempt to mislead customs inspectors.

“The seven passengers pulled several tricks, starting with booking more than one flight from their home countries; focusing on a convenient time of arrival, which was during an airport peak arrival time, and at an inspector shift swap time; thinking it would help accelerate their Customs procedures so they could slip away from the airport with the narcotics hidden in their guts,” said Ahmad Mahboob Mosabah, Director of Dubai Customs.

Ahmad Abdullah Bin Lahej, Director of Passenger Operations Department at Dubai Customs, revealed the details of the case beginning on October 25 at Dubai International Airport’s Terminal 2, when Customs inspectors suspected four Asian passengers arriving on a flight from their home country, en route to the customs area.

“The suspected passengers showed signs of nervousness, and passenger inspection teams coordinated to closely monitor them. The moment the first passenger stepped out, he was transferred along with his baggage to be searched, and nothing suspicious was found during an electronic scan and manual search of his luggage. The passenger was examined using the body scan machine which detected some strange items in his insides. When asked about the nature of these items, he admitted to swallowing drug-stuffed capsules. He was transferred to a hospital and a total of 50 capsules were recovered from his guts. Procedures taken against the first suspect were performed against the second one and 30 capsules were recovered,” he explained.

Through Customs investigation and follow up on the two suspects, resemblance as well as kinship was established, making inspectors more suspicious of the identity of two other passengers arriving on the same flight. The third passenger had 68 capsules in his insides, while the fourth had 50 capsules.

A fifth passenger arriving on the same flight also had two drug-stuffed capsules hidden inside him.

Another two passengers, linked to the five passengers, were arriving in the country on a different flight, and close surveillance was ordered against them.

The suspicions of the Customs inspectors proved to be correct as 33 heroin-stuffed capsules were taken out from the first suspect and 40 from the second, amounting to a total of 477 capsules of heroin, weighing 5.2kg, all recovered from the insides of the seven passengers.

He added that all seven passengers were carrying recently issued passports, and were trained to make the best use of Customs inspectors shift change at Terminal 2.

“The drug dealers’ exploitation of their relatives to facilitate coordination and the smuggling of drugs was discovered. All the detainees were sponsored by the same company, and they waited at the transit area for no reason, monitoring the inspectors, waiting for the right moment to carry out their malicious plan,” Bin Lahej said.