RIYADH — Sixteen members of drug cells who were operating mainly in Riyadh and Jeddah have been arrested. The General Directorate of Narcotics Control foiled their attempts to smuggle in and circulate 18,933,823 amphetamine tablets in the Kingdom. Captain Muhammad Al-Najidi, the spokesman of the directorate, said that the arrested persons include 10 Saudis and six foreigners. The security follow-up of the activities of the criminal networks that have smuggled and marketed narcotic substances to the Kingdom resulted in their arrest and seizure of a huge cache of narcotic pills. "The anti-drug teams managed to bust a criminal cell in Riyadh city and the cell consisted of five citizens who were proficient in receiving and promoting narcotic substances, and a total of 9,878,500 amphetamine tablets were seized from them," he said. Al-Najidi said 10 members of another cell were arrested in the Jeddah governorate and 5,827,000 amphetamine tablets were found hidden inside a shipment of clothes. In another operation, a foreigner was arrested while trying to smuggle in 3,228,323 amphetamine pills hidden inside a potato shipment at the northern Al-Haditha entry point on the border of Jordan, he added.
