Saudi authorities, where drug traffickers are sentenced to death, have seized 22.4 million amphetamine pills in one year, an interior ministry spokesman said Sunday. Around 28.8 tonnes of hashish and 26.2 kilograms (55 pounds) of heroin have also been seized during the past Hijri Islamic year which ended in mid-October, the spokesman said in a statement published on the official SPA news agency.
In their campaign against drug-trafficking, authorities have also confiscated hundreds of weapons, including 184 machineguns as well as rifles and guns, in addition to over 41 million riyals (11 million dollars), said the statement.
During eight months of the past Hijri year, 1,776 drug traffickers were arrested in the kingdom.
Under the Gulf state's strict Islamic legal code, murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death.
Last month, Lebanese airport security arrested Saudi Prince Abdel Mohsen Bin Walid Bin Abdulaziz and four others after nearly two tons of Captagon capsules and cocaine were found waiting to be loaded onto their private plane at Beirut airport.