DUBAI// Customs officials have seized 504,000 Tramadol tablets as they were being smuggled through the country.
A shipment of the painkiller, which is prohibited from circulation outside prescribed medical use, was intercepted at Jebel Ali Port en route from an Asian country to a destination in Africa.
The tablets were found in a container packed with 326 boxes of restricted medicines, which were discovered to contain 504,000 tramadol tablets, said Ahmed Abdullah Bin Lahj, director of Jebel Ali Customs Centres Department.
The drugs have a street value estimated to be around Dh5 million.
"The container was a shipment of medicines according to the information contained in the documents", he said.
"Dubai Customs inspectors, however, suspected the shipment and hence the container when X-rayed was found to be containing the prohibited drug of tramadol."
