Saudi Arabia Seizes Shipment of 1/2 Ton Cocaine from S.A.
Posted on Sun Jun 22, 2014 at 10:21:59 PM EST
Tags: cocaine, Saudi Arabia (all tags)
The penalty for drug trafficking in Saudi Arabia is death, which it carries out regularly through public beheadings. Either the death penalty is not much of a deterrent, or some people are pretty confident they won't get caught.
The Saudi Government announced today it seized 1/2 ton of cocaine (526 kilograms)at the port of Jeddah on June 7. The drugs were in a shipment of refills of photocopy paper that came from an unspecified country in South America.
Where did the drugs ship from? Ecuador is a possibility. Last week, the foreign minister of Ecuador announced on Twitter that 4 tons of drugs had been seized at the port of Guayaquil, bound for Saudi Arabia. (The police later corrected him and said it was 400 kilos.) In January, 227 kilos were seized en route to Saudi Arabia from Ecuador hidden in pineapples. In April, 600 kilograms were seized en route from Ecuador to Saudi Arabia. hidden in bananas.[More...]
Ecuador is only a transit country. It doesn't grow coca or process much cocaine. But last year, according to the U.N. report, see page 155, 110 tons of cocaine moved through Ecuador. The U.S. provides considerable money and training to Ecuador to assist in interdiction efforts. Ecuador said the 400 kilos caught on June 7 was the result of a "tip."
On the destination side, Saudi Arabia has a problem with amphetamine pills, but it's not known for consuming huge quantities of cocaine. If Saudi Arabia was only a transit point, what was the final destination of the drugs? Jeddah is a port on the Red Sea, across from Egypt and north of Yemen. It's also less than 1,000 miles from Syria.
If, as all governments claim, South American cartels are working with terror groups, which cartel and which terror group are behind the Saudi shipments? Saudi Arabia is 85% Sunni, and there are a lot of reports the Saudis have been funding Iraq militants. The U.S. claims ISIS gets its funds from illegal activity, but it has yet to claim ISIS makes money from drug trafficking. Is that claim coming next?
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