JEDDAH/RIYADH: Officials looking into the smuggling of gasoline abroad through Jeddah Islamic Port have said they are investigating one Saudi man and two foreigners. Jeddah Police said that the alleged ringleader in the operation is a man of Yemeni nationality who is believed to have been in charge of all finances including the payment of other members of the gang and organizing the means of smuggling the material out of the country. The other foreigner, police said, is an Egyptian who was responsible for securing the stolen cargoes. Police said they are still attempting to locate the Saudi man thought to be involved in the operation. The first arrests in the case were made last Tuesday after police surveillance led to a raid on a large walled site in the south of the city where stolen fuel was found in a large container. The gang is believed to have brought the fuel in tanker trucks from Rabigh and unloaded it at the site instead of gas stations, with the intention of transferring it into barrels to be taken to a neighboring Gulf country. A total of 11 persons have so far been arrested in the investigation, and the spokesman for Jeddah Police said late last week that some of the detained, who include Indians and Yemenis, had confessed to charges. The Assistant Director General of Saudi Customs for Customs Affairs, meanwhile, has said that hold-ups in cargoes at customs points in the Kingdom have been caused by “attempts by some drivers to smuggle gasoline”. Saud Al-Fahd, speaking at a meeting at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry Saturday, said that authorities are “working hard” to counter fuel smuggling, which he described as “damaging the national economy”. “Saudi Customs has in the last few months set up a team to study all possible ways to ease the movement of trade into and out of the Kingdom and try and eradicate the obstacles facing importers and exporters,” he said.
