Yemeni security authorities thwarted on Wednesday an attempt to smuggle 9000 pills of Captagon drugs into Saudi Arabia, the interior ministry reported.
The stash was seized in the western port city of Hodeida and the main suspect Ali Abdullah Al-Sarhi, 29 years old, has been arrested, it said.
The pills were concealed inside boxes and a wedding dress which were put inside a parcel, it said, pointing out that the drugs were shipped onboard one of the buses of Bin Moammar Company for Land Transport.
Since the unrest started here in early 2011, the trade in drugs and weapons has thrived in Yemen, which observers say has become a transit hub and a good market for weapons and drugs in recent years.
The authorities have seized many stashes of drugs and several arms cargoes just as the country is struggling to return the situation to normal after the unrest.
Separately, unknown gunmen assassinated Wednesday a security officer in the eastern province of Hadramout where many key military and police officers have been targeted since last year, the ministry said.
Yasir Muhammad Hamdain was shot dead by criminal elements in the Qatn town in the Hadramout valley, it said, quoting a local security source as saying “the gunmen were onboard a pickup and ran away before the authorities arrived at the killing site”.
Hamdain worked for the supply department of the provincial security authority and a hunt has been launched for the perpetrators, it continued.
Tens of senior Yemeni security and military officers, mostly intelligence detectives, have been targeted in main cities including the capital Sanaa since last year.