approximately 9,000 drugs-related cases were deported last year alone from Makkah
and today is much more then before
Makkah Police Report Increase in Crime Rate
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Badea Abu Al-Naja, Arab News
MAKKAH, — Statistics released by the Makkah police for the year 1428 (2007-2008) show an increased number of criminals arrested in the holy city.
In 1427, police arrested 56,455 people, and seized 577 cars and 3,727 motorbikes. Last year, 68,317 people were arrested, and 966 cars and 5,487 motorbikes were seized.
Maj. Abdul Muhsin Al-Mayman, official spokesman for the Makkah police, attributed the increase in the number of arrests to a growing police presence in the streets of the holy city.
“The Makkah police have managed to make lots of arrests and only a few murder cases have been left unsolved. The majority of crimes involve assaults, followed by thefts and then murders,” he said. “Overstayers are on top of the list of people arrested in cases related to burglaries, car thefts and bootlegging.”
He added that the finger printing system, which was introduced last year, has played a huge role in stopping criminals from reentering the Kingdom.
“In the past, we’ve had problems of criminals re-entering the country using different names and passports. The finger printing has been very useful,” he said.
and here more info
Rising crime in Makkah to be curbed
Tue, 2010-06-01 01:49 — editor
S.H.Moulana - Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Makkah, 01 June, (Asiantribune.com):
With a burgeoning community of foreigners who are residing in Makkah illegally, the holy city has in recent times seen a rise in crime with police stretched to their limits, Al-Watan newspaper reported.
It is thought the city’s large community of overstayers, who are of numerous nationalities, is to blame for the surge. According to reports, most of the thefts are carried out by semi-organized gangs.
The majority of these people live in the undeveloped areas around Al-Mansour Street, such as the Hindawiya, Tandabawi, Zogla, Jabal Ghurab, Harat Al-Zaharain and Rusaifa districts.
The city’s residents are fed up with the rampant crime and call on the authorities to properly punish criminals. “In most cases, thieves who are caught are given light punishments; their crimes aren’t even publicized,” said one resident.
“We also need to make some concrete steps regarding undeveloped districts, which are home to many overstayers and crime gangs,” said another resident.
Maj. Abdul Muhsin Al-Mayman, official spokesman for the Makkah police, attributed the high crime rate to the presence of so many illegal residents in the city.
He said he is optimistic the fingerprinting system will play a crucial role in curbing crime and preventing known criminals from re-entering the Kingdom.
Brig. Gen. Muhammad Al-Bunyan, a security expert, echoed Al-Mayman's views. He said youths without proper residency documents are behind most of the city’s crimes.
“These youths live in poverty and are unemployed. These are the factors that bring them on to the streets and push them into all sorts of crimes, such as thefts, robbery and pickpocketing,” he said.
Maj. Gen. Abdul Samie Qadi, a former police official in Makkah, called on the authorities to take urgent steps to address the issue of people without proper resident permits.
“Giving iqamas to illegal residents would enable them to find proper jobs,” he added.
Sami Miabar, district chief of Rusaifa, also claimed that criminals in his area tend to be non-Saudis. “Some foreign nationals work as security guards or drivers. Many of them struggle hard to earn money and feed their family members, often comprising up to 20 people in one household,” he said.
“They also struggle to provide them with education. There is a need to rehabilitate these children into society and prevent them from becoming part of crime gangs,” he added.
Miabar suggested cleaning companies hire these unemployed youths instead of sourcing manpower from abroad.
Adel Munawwar, a professor of social science, underlined the need for field studies to pinpoint the actual causes of the huge number of thefts in the city. “Most of those involved are youths of various nationalities who are illiterate and jobless. Measures need to be taken to either rehabilitate them or deport them,” he said.
He added that some families employ women who reside in the Kingdom illegally as housemaids as they are cheaper than those who are legal.
“Some of these maids have been known to collaborate with burglars. These women provide all relevant information for criminals to carry out their crimes,” he said, adding that people should be wary of hiring such women.
Tanf Al-Daajani, a judge at the primary court in Makkah, said youths also steal to pay for drugs. “A number of thieves have been found to be drug addicts. They steal because they need money to pay for drugs,” he said, adding that some thieves are part of large gangs.
“Unemployment is a major factor behind the increasing number of thefts. It is crucial we stamp out the problem of illegal residents to eradicate crime in the city,” he added.
According to a recent study, around 9,000 drug-related cases were reported last year in Makkah province, which includes Jeddah. The study, which was carried out by Dr. Ashraf Shilbi, associate professor of psychology at King Saud University of Riyadh, said there has been an annual increase in drug-related crime in the province.
- Asian Tribune -
mafia - drugs - snatching - no go areas - theft - everything is available only people scared of murder as it will lead to death
Mecca Becomes Mecca for Drugs
Benjamin Joffe-Walt - The Media Line
Category: Health
May 1, 2010
Some drugs like pot, gat and hash are natural. But antidepressant drug abuse in Mecca, Saudi Arabia is causing social problems.
Mecca province, home to the holiest site in Islam, has the highest rate of drug-related crime in Saudi Arabia, a university study has found. The national study, carried out by Dr. Ashraf Shilbi of the National Center for Youth Research at King Saud University in the capital Riyadh, calculated that the number of drug-related legal cases in Mecca province has steadily risen by around 1,000 each year. In 2009 it peaked at 9,000 cases.
Most countries in the world are facing issues of
teenage drug addiction and other forms of substance abuse.
“Drugs is certainly a problem in Saudi Arabia and every day you hear about the government killing someone for smuggling drugs,” Wajiha Al-Huwaidar, a former teacher, told
The Media Line. “I would think that the problem is more pronounced in Mecca because it’s very crowded and very easy to get a visa to come to Saudi Arabia for
Hajj or Umrah, so many people can come as drug dealers under the guise of a pilgrim.”
The study, first reported by the Al-Madinah daily, found the Saudi capital Riyadh to be second in the number of drug-related cases, followed by the provinces of Jazan, the Eastern Province, Asir, Madinah, Tabuk, Al-Qassim and Al-Jouf.
While drug abuse made up the majority of cases, drug trafficking was also found to be on the rise. Despite a Saudi stigma that drug smuggling is led by foreigners, the study found the vast majority of drug smuggling cases to be Saudi citizens, with foreigners making up only 22 percent of drug trafficking cases.
The study also found that over the last decade Saudi hospitals in the country’s capital and commercial center have recorded a tripling of the number of drug addicts receiving treatment. The number of drug addicts seeking treatment in the Saudi capital Riyadh, for example, were found to have tripled, from 13,520 in 200 to 40,515 in 2009. The number of addicts treated in Jeddah more than tripled, from 10,876 in 2000 to 35,857 in 2009.
Ahmed Al-Omran (links to his blog Saudi Jeans), an influential Saudi critic and blogger, said it was unclear why Riyadh and Jeddah had witnessed such a notable rise in drug use. “There are likely many factors – unemployment, more people travelling inside and outside of the country, etc,” he said. “But it’s hard for me to speculate and the study should have looked more into the reasons for the rise in drug use.”
Al-Omran downplayed the importance of the study. “Drugs are everywhere in the world, the Mecca region is big and is not just the holy city of Mecca,” he told The Media Line. “So it doesn’t seem very weird that there would be a high rate of drugs in Mecca province.”
“Whenever the government publishes the news that they have seized a large amount of drugs coming into the country it indicates that there is a problem of drugs in the country,” Al-Omran said. “But the government only manages to seize a small percentage of what’s in the market, so they also need to work on awareness and make sure families know the dangers of drug use.”
Shilbi’s research found the most popular illegal drug in Saudi Arabia to be the
antidepressant Catptagon, followed by
hashish,
Qat (or gat),
heroin, amphetamine,
opium and cocaine.
Hashish, dried cannabis also known as ‘hash’, made up the largest proportion of the drugs confiscated by Saudi authorities. The volume of Hashish seized has steadily increased by 18 percent each year. Qat, a plant with an amphetamine-like stimulant, made up the majority of drug seizures in the southern province of Jazan, with more than 10,000 recorded seizures of the plant last year alone. Seizures of cocaine and opium were very rare and recorded only in the capital Riyadh and Saudi Arabia’s commercial center Jeddah.
The study found that drug dealers in Saudi tend to be students or workers, and those most vulnerable to drug abuse tend to be young men aged 20 to 30. Bachelors and the unemployed were also found to be demographic groups more at risk for drug abuse.
The Saudi Interior Ministry announced last week that drug enforcement officials had completed one of the largest drug busts in its history, arresting 195 individuals over four months on charges of drugs smuggling. Authorities also seized eight million tablets of Captagon, two tons of hashish, and more than 20 kilograms of pure heroin.
Drug trafficking is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia, regardless of the quantity being trafficked. The knock-on effect is that if drug traffickers take the risk of doing business in the Saudi kingdom, to make it worthwhile they will usually traffic huge volumes of drugs with large profit margins.
More on Middle East drugs and conflict with the environment and human health:
Hashish Shortage Stokes Bitterness in Egypt
Yemen’s Environmental and Social Problems Blamed on Chewing Gat
Afghan Opium Growers Get the Burn-Out
This article is reprinted courtesy of The Middle East News Source,
The Media Line.
I bet the punishment would be severe
