Aden: Huge cocaine shipment seized coming from Brazil.

Arab Sea Newspaper - Follow-ups

Arabian Sea - Yemen - Follow-ups: The counter-terrorism unit in Aden announced on Saturday the seizure of a large shipment of cocaine, estimated at about 600 kilograms, after it was smuggled inside bags of sugar that arrived from a Brazilian port to the port of Aden, before being transferred to a warehouse in preparation for sending it to areas under the control of the Houthi group. The unit explained in a statement that the operation was carried out in coordination with the specialized criminal prosecution, following an intelligence report received on Thursday afternoon, August 21, about the presence of a suspicious sugar container. The statement added that specialized field teams moved immediately accompanied by the prosecutor, where the warehouse was searched and hundreds of plastic bags wrapped in insulators and carbon paper were found to hide the drug, and the quantity was officially seized according to legal procedures. The statement quoted Major General Shallal Shayea, the head of the unit, as saying that initial investigations indicate that the shipment is linked to international smuggling networks working in coordination with the Houthi group and external parties supporting it, noting that these networks use drugs as a source of funding for terrorist activities. Shayea pointed out that this operation is the third of its kind, after the seizure of two similar shipments coming from Brazil in the same way in October 2020 and December 2021. The statement also stated that the unit received representatives of the United Nations accredited to Yemen, and briefed them on the details of the operation and the smuggling methods used, in addition to an explanation about the ongoing investigations to identify the networks involved.