The spokesman for the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (the Hai'a) in Asir has said that the organization in the region has discovered and destroyed over 1.5 million liters of alcohol in the last three years. Spokesman Bandar Aal Mufrih said that large quantities of locally produced alcohol had been found in the vicinity of farm dams and hidden in drainage networks, rendering the materials “poisonous”. Boxes of alcohol brought in from abroad had also been found. “Support from the Mayor's Office in providing police and officials from the Mujahideen Department has greatly helped the Hai'a in carrying out its duties,” Aal Mufrih said. Meanwhile, in Taif the Hai'a broke up an alcohol production operation after an official posed as a customer. One man and two women were arrested at the site at Al-Naseem Mountain on charges of making and selling alcohol and all three were handed over to police. The man was also charged with khulwa – being in the unsupervised company of unrelated females.
