Customs officials at Doha’s Hamad International Airport have seized drugs for the first time since the start of the World Cup, Qatar authorities announced on Monday.
The wealthy Gulf emirate, which is rampant in drug trafficking and consumption, has hosted the first World Cup to be held in the Middle East since Sunday and expects to host more than a million visitors by the day of the final, December 18.
“Customs at Hamad International Airport thwarted the trade in tramadol and hashish,” the General Authority of Customs said on Twitter.
One of the customs officers at Doha airport “became suspicious of a passenger’s bags, so he inspected them and found 1,990 Tramadol tablets, along with 464.5 grams of hashish,” the agency reported.
The passenger in question, about whom no information has been released, must appear before the prosecution, a Qatari official, who declined to be named, told AFP.
The penalties imposed in Qatar for drug possession, use or trafficking are very severe, including long prison terms, large fines and expulsion from the territory in the case of foreigners.
A powerful painkiller, Tramadol, a synthetic opioid, can be highly addictive. It is one of the products linked to the opioid crisis that is shaking the United States, where overdoses of this substance have caused more than half a million deaths in two decades.
Source: DN
