Hashish smugglers open fire By Ahmed Al-Jubeili JIZAN – Police carrying out a routine stop in the Al-Hashar Mountains here Tuesday were fired upon by a group of smugglers who abandoned their wares while fleeing. Officers recovered 14 blocks of hashish and a pistol and are still trying to locate the smugglers. – Okaz/SG Investigation into 500-riyal fake bill By Abdul Khaliq Al-Ghamdi AL-BAHA – An Egyptian pharmacist in Al-Baha has been arrested after being found in possession of a counterfeit 500-riyal note. Police spokesman Abdul Nasser Al-Ghamdi said the man claimed to have obtained the note from an ATM in the town. “The case has been passed over to the relevant authorities for investigation into the origin of the money,” Al-Ghamdi said, adding that the note was not of recent issue. – Okaz/SG Bangladeshi brothel gang busted in Jeddah By Ibrahim Alawi JEDDAH – A gang of Bangladeshis has been arrested in Jeddah accused of running a prostitution racket in various districts of the city. Acting on previous information, officers put the suspected head of the gang under surveillance, and discovered that the gang alternated the sites used as brothels in order to avoid detection. Having traced the illegal activities from premises in the Mushrifa district, police finally conducted a raid on Tuesday in Al-Jami'a where the gang leader was held along with two Indonesian women and a number of suspected clients. – Okaz/SG Two arrested over home attack By Nawaf Afet RIYADH – Police in the capital have arrested two persons for breaking into a house and attacking one person with a knife before tying him up, forcing him to reveal his ATM card number and fleeing with electrical goods and money. The 26-year-old victim of the attack told police that two youths entered his home in the Al-Naseem District and punched and stabbed him before tying him up and locking him inside one of the bedrooms. They then proceeded to gather electronic equipment from the house and stole his wallet containing SR2,000. Police said that two males aged 19 and 20 had been arrested and had confessed to the crime during questioning. – Okaz/SG 33 illegals held for deportation By Abdullah Al-Maqati DHULUM – Police in Umm Daum detained Tuesday 33 persons in breach of labor and residency laws. The 33, among them 13 Ethiopians and six Yemenis, have been passed over to deportation authorities ahead of being returned to their home countries. – Okaz/SG Hash found on nervous driver By Abdullah Al-Maqati DHULUM – The nervous behavior of a motorist at a checkpoint on the Taif to Riyadh road Monday led to the discovery on his person of a small quantity of hashish and two rolled cigarettes containing the drug. Police noticed the driver's concern at being asked for his identity papers and found the illegal materials hidden in his clothes. – Okaz/SG Warehouse family gang caught red-handed By Ibrahim Alawi JEDDAH – An Arab gang of 12 warehouse thieves, all relatives, were caught red-handed on Monday as they cut through the metal locks of a site police had put under surveillance. The gang, who are believed to be responsible for ten robberies in the Al-Khamra district of Jeddah, entered sites using heavy metal cutters, and the extent of their activities led police to put vulnerable sites under surveillance in the hope of catching the culprits. All of the arrested were living in the Kingdom illegally. – Okaz/SG Hai'a holds imam for harassing woman ABHA – The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai'a) arrested Monday the imam of a mosque in central Abha on charges of “harassing a young woman” in the bathrooms of his mosque. According to Al-Watan newspaper on Tuesday a regional spokesman said that the Hai'a had “saved the girl” from the imam who was detained over the incident and a series of other similar reports. “The girl was unharmed and the man has been handed over to investigators,” Hai'a spokesman Bandar Aal Mufrih of the Hai'a told Al-Watan. The Arab resident was reportedly appointed at the mosque as acting imam.
