Abu Dhabi Police on Monday released a video of The Operation Spirit of Cooperation which showed the police arresting drug dealers and seizing 794,892 pills in Al Ain.
The video shows Abu Dhabi police chasing and arresting the suspects during the night-time operation. One of the suspects was arrested from the neighbour’s water tank, hiding from the police raid.
Abu Dhabi Police said on Sunday that Operation Spirit of Cooperation seized 794,892 pills in the possession of three dealers in Al Ain and Ajman.
The operation was executed by a professional anti-narcotics team in coordination with the Anti-Narcotics Federal Directorate General at the Ministry of Interior, the General Department of Anti-Narcotics at Dubai Police and the Anti-Narcotic Department of the Ajman Police.
The first suspect (GCC national) was captured hiding in his neighbour’s water tank after he tried to escape by climbing the fence onto the roof of the neighbour’s house as police raided his villa in Al Ain.
The second suspect (GCC national) was apprehended in the residence of the first while dividing the pills and filling them in sealed bags to smuggle them in a fuel tanker to one of the neighbouring countries. The third suspect (Arab national) was arrested in his apartment in Ajman, while in possession of the rest of the drug shipment in his rented vehicle.
Colonel Dr. Rashid Mohammad Borshid, Head of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) at the Abu Dhabi Police General Headquarters, said that “Spirit of Cooperation” had been chosen as the name for the operation due to the cooperation, teamwork spirit and mutual fruitful coordination among all anti-narcotics entities through which the operation was executed. He continued that the suspects were closely monitored, which led to the arrest of the first two suspects (GCC nationals) in Al Ain, and the third (Arab National) in Ajman, after monitoring his suspicious activities from Dubai.
Colonel Dr. Borshid said the groups gathered all the information about the incident and expanded the scope of the crime scene after collecting clear physical evidence that convicted the suspects. He noted that the team succeeded in foiling the plans of the suspects; unveiling their criminal activities and arresting the suspects with the pills in their possession.
Colonel Dr. Borshid called upon the public to counter all illegal behaviour and promptly report legal violations to help the police to act quickly to ensure the community’s security.
He reaffirmed the Abu Dhabi Police’s dedication to countering and significantly limiting crimes, in addition to sensing imminent danger with vigilant eyes. He praised the efforts of honest citizens who cooperate and trust in the police institution and its ability to uncover the truth, arrest criminals and hand them over to justice.
Colonel Saeed Abdullah Al Suwaidi, Director General, Anti-Narcotics Federal Directorate General at the Ministry of Interior, commended the cooperation that led to the success of this operation, saying that the Ministry of Interior succeeded in penetrating a gang smuggling Captagon pills and managed, through a secret source, to identify the location of the delivery in Al Quoz in Dubai.
The work team took all required legal procedures and set field plans which resulted in foiling the smuggling and dealing of these pills in the UAE and abroad, and arresting the criminals.
He noted that the information collected led to the head of this gang who is a GCC national. He said that the authorities are now coordinating with their peers in the concerned GCC country to target the head of the gang and take legal action against him.
Colonel Al Suwaidi explained, “The planning and implementation of this crime took place in three different emirates. Crimes of narcotics trafficking and dealing are no longer limited to a certain geographical area, and they usually extend to different emirates where legal and organizational jurisdictions overlap. This poses a security challenge that we need to face and address. We can achieve this by re-considering the nature of narcotics trafficking and dealing; considering them federal crimes due to the danger posted on the youth and the country’s achievements.”
In details, Colonel Sultan Suwayeh Al Darmaki, Chief of the Anti-Drug Section at the Abu Dhabi Police, mentioned that the first lead in the case was information coming from the Director General, Anti-Narcotics Federal Directorate General at the Ministry of Interior, on a gang in possession of a large quantity of pills. A professional team of anti-narcotics staff was formed to create a security plan to foil the operation.
He mentioned that the immediate investigations and the secret surveillance revealed a criminal plan to exchange a large quantity of pills between the first suspect (GCC national, Kh.S.A., 38) the second suspect (GCC national, A.T.A., 31) and the third suspect (Arab national, S.Kh.S., 31) in order to deal the pills in the country and abroad.
The operation was monitored and the suspects were followed until the first and second suspects were caught red-handed in the possession of 537 bags of pills; while the third was caught in possession of 160 sealed bags of pills in the trunk of his car.
Colonel Al Darmaki relayed the confessions of the suspects after they were interrogated and confronted with the evidence. The suspects admitted the possession of the seized pills. They also admitted their intent to market and sell them domestically and smuggle a portion of them into other GCC countries, as per the request of a drug dealer (residing in a GCC country), who had told one of them about the shipment of pills to the UAE. He had asked them to market and sell them inside the UAE and to work with others to smuggle them into a neighbouring country, in return for a handsome sum of money. The police efforts led to foiling this operation and destroying the false hopes of the culprits, who found themselves in the vigilant grasp of the police staff.
Colonel Al Darmaki noted that the suspects and the seized drugs were handed over to the relevant authorities. He called upon the public to communicate through the official channels established by the Abu Dhabi Police to fight any drug dealing or smuggling operations. This will allow police to apprehend any smuggler or dealer targeting members of society and protect the youth.
