Over 100 individuals have been detained in Dubai after police discovered a WhatsApp ‘drug delivery’ business operating throughout the city. The drug sellers spoke with consumers over WhatsApp and sold a variety of drugs, including crystal meth, hashish, and illicit medications.
The drug sellers would then give the GPS coordinates for the narcotics’ location, which were frequently concealed underground in rural places. They communicated using unidentified phone numbers from a random selection of phones.
A hundred drug traffickers arrested for using an illicit WhatsApp "delivery service" to target the public https://t.co/rweMhsIiF8
— The National (@TheNationalNews) March 2, 2022
“The ‘Unknown Messages’ campaign is a crackdown on traffickers who provided what we can call a ‘drug delivery’ service,” said Col Abdullah Al Khayat, manager of Hemaya International Centre at Dubai Police. “Traffickers send messages from unknown numbers to residents across the country offering them different types of drugs such as hashish, crystal meth and illegal painkillers.”
To raise awareness of the drug traffickers’ WhatsApp communications, the police collaborated with Etisalat and du, as well as the Roads and Transport Authority and the Central Bank. 632 individuals contacted Dubai Police, resulting in the arrest of over 100 drug dealers and accomplices.
