ABU DHABI, The Federal Customs Authority, FCA, held a meeting with the general managers of local customs departments to discuss their role in combatting drug smuggling and protecting the nation’s community and economy from its negative effects.
The meeting yesterday was headed by Ali bin Subaih Al Kaabi, Customs Commissioner and Chairman of the FCA, and was attended by Mohammad Juma Buossaiba, Director-General of the FCA; Rashid Lahij Al Mansouri, Director-General of the General Administration for Customs-Abu Dhabi; Ahmed Mahboob Musabih, Director of Dubai Customs; Mohammed Mir Abdulrahman, Director of the Sharjah Seaports and Customs Department; Ahmed Abdullah bin Lahij, Executive Director of the Customs Affairs Sector at the FCA; Rashid Humaid Al Kindi, Deputy Director-General of Fujairah Customs; Mohammed Abdulrahman Al Awadhi, Director of the Customs Affairs Department at the Department of Ports and Customs in Ajman; Marwan Mohammed Dorbini, Director of the Customs Affairs Department at Ras al-Khaimah Customs; Habib Al Ali, Chief of the Security and Safety Department at the Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation in Umm Al Qaiwain, and several department directors at the FCA.
The participants presented the latest statistics on drug seizures by the FCA and local customs departments from 2014 to the end of 2017. They also discussed the challenges facing customs inspectors and local customs departments and the developments in drug smuggling operations, especially regarding smugglers swallowing drugs, as well as the latest anti-smuggling strategies and methods of early detection.
The meeting also discussed the types of support offered by the FCA for local customs departments in the areas of equipment, training and exchanging information and expertise.
Ali Al Kaabi stressed that drug smuggling is a dangerous disease that threatens the security and stability of communities, as it targets their most important resource, which is people, especially the youth, while pointing out that the methods and tools used by smugglers are advancing daily, in light of the efforts of all concerned authorities in the country and around the world to tackle drug smuggling.
He added that customs departments perform a key role in supporting the country’s security and preserving community stability, especially by combatting drugs, in cooperation with police and security authorities, while praising the role of customs inspectors in the country’s air, land and sea ports, as well as in the mail service, to protect the community from drug smuggling and combat smugglers and discover their methods.
Al Kaabi stressed that the ongoing developments in the smuggling of drugs by terrorist organisations and drug syndicates require the FCA and local customs departments to be more alert and improve their inspection methods, as well as to raise the standards of inspectors in customs ports and develop mechanisms to manage related risks, in cooperation with relevant authorities.
He also praised the cooperation between security and police authorities, the Anti-Narcotics Council, the FCA and local customs departments in exchanging information and expertise related to drug smuggling operations while adding that this cooperation has increased the number of drug seizures over the last few years.
Source: Emirates News Agency