Security sources mentioned on Sunday that Interior Ministry seized nearly 1,400,000 capsules of drugs since the beginning of 2008.

The sources added that the latest operation of capturing drugs was done in the Aden harbor, where about 3,500,000 capsules of drugs were found inside water heaters imported from a neighboring country.

Investigations are currently underway with the smugglers.

Last week, security forces in Hodeidah province held a Syrian citizen charged with smuggling 1.2 million captagon pills into the country.

The seizure comes after the security forces seized a large amount of captagon pills concealed in water heaters shipped in a container and after they found large quantities of hashish in two different vehicles.

Though it is not a consuming country, Yemen has turned into a transit country for drugs exported to Gulf countries coming from Southeast  Asia.

In 2007, the quantities of drugs seized amounted to 115,000 kg of manufactured Hashish, 792,000 drug pills, 5 ton of Hashish and 2 kg of Heroin.

Over the last three years, the number of drug crimes mounted to 312 cases with 511 indicted people including 472 Yemenis and 47 of foreign nationalities.

Nevertheless, the country’s coastguard forces face numerous challenges in monitoring and controlling drug traders who use the country as a transit, especially when the country has a long coastline stretching for over 2,000 km.