The General Authority of Customs (GAC) has to be congratulated for preventing repeated attempts to smuggle illegal drugs into Qatar. Between December 2014 and now, alert Customs officials at Hamad International Airport (HIA) have seized a total of 43kg of marijuana from five separate smuggling attempts and apprehended the carriers.
Though complete statistics for the year 2014 are not available, the GAC had announced earlier that around 1,500 seizures took place in 2013. These included 282 seizures of illicit drugs, 102 of narcotic pills, 17 of alcoholic substances, 80 of tobacco products as well as 162 violations of intellectual property rights, 19 pertaining to arms and ammunition and 689 commercial fraud. Other cases pertained to smuggling of endangered animals, unethical materials and other banned items.
While speaking in December 2014 after foiling an attempt to smuggle 17kg of marijuana, found in the luggage of a passenger who had arrived in Doha on a direct flight from an Asian country, Khalid Hamad Rashid al-Kaabi, director of the HIA Customs Department, said that in cases involving the seizure of narcotic substances from travellers, the department informs the Ministry of Interior’s Drug Prevention Department immediately for due legal action and to refer the case to the Prosecution. Simultaneously, the GAC follows up with the competent security department.
Al-Kaabi said the Customs often thwarted attempts by traffickers to bring in banned substances such as opium, cocaine, pills, hashish and others, hidden in travellers’ luggage.
It was during February this year that Customs officers at the HIA foiled an attempt to smuggle different types of narcotic substances by an Asian traveller who arrived in Doha through a direct flight from his country. The substances included around 1kg of marijuana, 20 Tramadol pills and some white powder.
Such seizures are possible because Customs inspectors are trained to detect suspects by observing their behaviour, as pointed out by HIA’s Customs Department acting director Ajab Mansur al-Qahtani.
In March, Customs officials thwarted an attempt to smuggle 6kg of marijuana into Qatar by a passenger coming from an Asian country.
During the current month, June, the officials prevented two drug smuggling attempts by apprehending two travellers who were carrying 8kg and 11kg of marijuana, respectively.
In the first case, the accused had tried to mislead the authorities by arriving at HIA on a transit trip from another GCC country. However, the Customs officers became suspicious of his behaviour and decided to conduct a thorough manual search of his luggage, where marijuana was found wrapped in many layers of packaging materials.
The most recent was foiling an attempt to smuggle 11kg of marijuana through HIA. The contraband was found in the possession of an Asian passenger, who had arrived in Doha after transiting through another GCC country. A Customs officer found the traveller’s behaviour suspicious and, on checking his luggage, found the banned substance inside.
The aspect that requires highest appreciation in Qatar’s fight against the scourge of narcotics is the ability of the Customs officials at the HIA to analyse passenger behaviour and act on its basis.
