Saudi border guards seize 760 kg of hashish, hold 61 in south
Saudi border guards foiled hashish and khat smuggling attempts in the Jazan, Najran and Asir regions, seizing 760 kg of hashish alongside 45.6 tonnes of khat. Sixty-one suspects were held, most of them Saudi citizens.
Saudi Arabia’s Border Guard foiled hashish and khat smuggling attempts in
the southern Jazan, Najran and Asir regions, seizing 760 kg of hashish.[1][2]The Saudi Press Agency announcement, reported on Wednesday 4 May 2022, also
records 45.6 tonnes of the narcotic plant khat taken in the same
operations.[1][2]
Sixty-one suspects were held: 41 Saudi citizens, 11 Ethiopians, seven
Yemenis and two Pakistanis.[1]A second account confirms 61 people held
over the smuggling of 760 kg of hashish and almost 46 tonnes of khat in the
same three regions.[2]
The sources report no charges or court outcomes for the 61 people held.[1][2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Date: the Saudi Press Agency announced the operation on a Wednesday in early May 2022; this report uses 4 May 2022, the Wednesday before the first coverage.
The 45.6 tonnes of khat seized in the same operations are not cannabis figures and are recorded only in the text.
Whether the 61 people held were charged, prosecuted or sentenced was not reported in the opened sources.
A Saudi Press Agency handout photo of the detained smugglers was credited in one listing, but the page was unreachable and no direct photo address could be recovered.
The Shield article describes further contemporaneous operations, including an 11-million-pill amphetamine seizure in Jouf, which are separate events left out of this report.
Saudi Border Guard land patrols in the Al-Ardah sector of Jazan region foiled an attempt to smuggle 46 kilograms of hashish, the directorate announced on 11 November 2026. It said initial legal procedures had been completed and the seized drugs handed over to the competent authority, without naming any suspect or giving an arrest figure.
Saudi Arabia's General Directorate of Border Guard said it foiled attempts to smuggle 76 kg of hashish and arrested those it called the smugglers, without saying how many. The same announcement reported 366,280 amphetamine tablets and 163,750 tablets under medical-trade controls, none of which is counted as cannabis.
Saudi Arabia's customs posts recorded 1,205 seizures of prohibited goods at land, sea and air crossings in one week, including 36 types of narcotics such as hashish, cocaine and Captagon. The Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority gave no cannabis quantity, arrest count or breakdown of the individual cases.
Saudi Border Guard land patrols in the Dhahran al-Janub sector of Asir region stopped an attempt to smuggle 11 kg of hashish along with 14,800 tablets under medical-trade controls and 2,950 amphetamine tablets. Another operation announced the same day led to the arrest of four violators of the border security law over 80 kg of khat in Asir.
