Dubai Customs foils bid to smuggle 4.2 million Tramadol pills

A massive haul of 52 million illegal pills have been seized in Jebel Ali Port – the second biggest haul for Dubai Customs this year.

There were 4.2 million Tramadol tablets among the drugs, which were being smuggled in a metal container from an Asian country.

Saeed Ahmed Al Tayer, Senior Director of Sea Cargo Operations at Jebel Ali, said: “This is the second-largest prohibited drug smuggling attempt foiled by Customs inspectors this year.

“It reflects the traffickers’ determination to infiltrate prohibited substances endangering human health without any moral or religious restraint, seeking quick gains.”

Al Tayer revealed that the seizure was made after a tip-off about the Tramadol.

He said: “The container was referred to inspection and passed through the container X-Ray Scanner system and when the company’s representative was confronted and questioned about the container contents, he stated that it contains ‘body building food supplements’.”

The container was then found to be containing 47.7 million drug tablets of restricted use.

The company representative was handed over to Dubai Police’s Anti-Drugs Department.

Al Tayer added: “Tramadol traffickers target in particular students and youth mainly because they are the backbone of development in any society and hence they seek to disrupt such energies, which are capable of building, reward and development."

According to medical reports, Tramadol can cause shortness of breath, coma, convulsions, bradycardia, low blood pressure, heart failure and death.

Dubai Customs has recently launched an awareness campaign about the risks of Tramadol, in co-operation with Dubai Health Authority.

A massive 91 million Tramadol tablets worth Dhs1 billion were seized in a sea cargo coming from an Asian country to the UAE through Jebel Ali Port earlier this year.