SAUDI ARABIA

Vegetable peddlers caught selling narcotics, pimping

A vendors peddles fruits along a street in Jeddah.

                                                                                               

     

MAKKAH: Municipality inspectors have caught a number of illegal foreign peddlers selling various kinds of drugs in Makkah.

Some were even caught acting as pimps. Their so-called trade of selling fruit and vegetables was exposed as a front for their illegal activities.

A committee from the municipality’s department of environmental health recently caught an overstaying Yemeni selling drugs, including amphetamines, hashish and qat. He communicated to his customers using text messages.

The unidentified Yemeni was pushing his vegetable cart along the streets of Jarwal district when officials caught him.

Upon examining his BlackBerry phone, they discovered messages that revealed he was selling drugs.

The messages showed that the suspect was selling four pills of Captagon for SR50, a block of hashish for SR500 and a bundle of qat for SR150.

Another foreign peddler who ran a prostitution ring would lure women by selling mobile SIM cards to them. He would sell the cards to them at low prices and then call them later to pimp them out to customers.

After they reached an agreement, he would send them to houses of single men and then take a commission from them. The inspectors caught the man in Al-Mansour district.

The committee did not identify the pimp but said he was a Yemeni national who was caught after being tipped off by one of his customers. Officials added that a number of SIM cards were found with him and he admitted his crime.

The committee also arrested a Nigerian who was also pimping out women from his country, using his watermelon business as a front.

According to the committee, the illegal resident was caught after a Saudi citizen tipped off police about his activities. Officials said the informant befriended him until he gained the Nigerian’s trust.

When the Nigerian was convinced the Saudi was trustworthy, he offered to bring him girls.

Meanwhile, the committee also caught a number of Bangladeshi peddlers selling fruit and vegetables irrigated with sewage water.