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Smugglers constantly try to bring drugs, explosives and millions of counterfeit goods into Dubai. Melissa Sleiman meets the people at Dubai Customs who fight them.
Pigeons strapped inside an aeroplane passenger's pants. Explosives stashed in electronic devices. Containers full of lettuce, hiding drugs in their cores. It takes quite an inventive mind to get illegal goods into Dubai.
Consequently, Dubai Customs is stepping up action to keep up with the smugglers' methods. Over the past year, their technical department spent around 26 million dirhams (US$7 million) on the staff, trainings and their equipment, according to Mohammed Musabeh Bin Dhahi, Senior Manager of the Operations and Technical Support Department.
Bin Dhahi's office is located in a ship-shaped building next to Port Rashid serving as the main office of Dubai Customs. There are 2300 officers working for the governmental department, spread out over 16 locations across the city.
When I meet Bin Dhahi, he strikes me as religious - he doesn't stretch out his arm to give me a handshake, but merely smiles instead - and helpful. His eyes are hidden behind silver-framed glasses and he has a gentle and kind look on his face. He is wearing a plain white dishdash and has a long, curly beard cut in a rectangular shape.
We sit down at each side of Bin Dhahi's desk as he starts explaining what kind of goods the inspectors are on the lookout for. He's been with Dubai Customs for 15 years and begins by telling me the facts.
"More than 80 percent of our seizures is drugs," he says. "After that comes counterfeit merchandise such as fake designer bags and watches -around 10 percent of seizures.
"Commonly smuggled goods we look at are cigarettes, electronics, and foodstuff. The latter two are mostly used for hiding things inside. Recently, smugglers brought a container full of lettuce with drugs hidden in them. You put it inside when the vegetables are still small, causing the lettuce to grow around it." Thus it becomes difficult to detect.
At the end of January, customs officials seized 16 kilograms of pure heroin packed into hollowed-out salted almonds - slightly over half the total amount in 2008.
Noting the passenger's hesitation when claiming his luggage from the carrousel, inspection officers placed him under surveillance and found the heroin packed in a way that suggested they were gifts.
Another common method used globally to bring drugs into countries is by putting them inside a courier's stomach. Usually, the substance they swallow is packed into containers made up of two condoms in an effort to prevent breakage, as the stomach's acidity tries to digest them.
It's almost a foolproof method as there is no detectable smell - except when a container breaks and the courier dies.
Or, he could get found out and arrested upon arrival at the airport. "We have a special ‘Rover' team which looks at body language," says Bin Dhahi. "More than twenty of its people are always present at the airport. Airlines also cooperate with us. They inform us if a passenger doesn't eat or if he behaved strangely."
Arriving passengers get a body scan once they are marked as being suspect. "We have four systems at the airport which show the shape of things, such as when there are tablets in someone's stomach. More than a hundred suspects a day are scanned."
However, it is merely a fraction of the total amount of arrivals - around 2 or 3 percent. So is it possible to pass through without the goods being detected?
"Yes," he confirms. "If you're an experienced smuggler who doesn't show signs of strange behaviour and thus don't get scanned, it is possible."
Bin Dhahi is quick to point out that Dubai Customs has many other ways to catch illegal supplies. "We have a system that can detect drugs, narcotics and explosives at the same time," he tells me proudly. "We swipe a special material on the goods and put what is swiped in the system. That will tell us whether there is something in them."
In addition, Dubai Customs has an intelligence department which provides information about all possible threats and risks. It analyzes information received from ships, the airport, and cargo village.
Undercover agents clue the department in on suspect activity. Intelligence then draws a risk profile for different companies, countries and customers. The technical and operations department acts on that feedback.
The officials bring in dogs if they get an indication of suspect materials. The unit has been active from the second half of 2008 after enduring smell training for almost a year. Four are used to identify drugs, two can seek out explosives. They are Labradors and Malinois from Holland.
But while drugs and explosives can get sniffed out, it's a whole different story when it comes to identifying counterfeit goods. Those include watches, bags, clothes, electronics, and so forth of fake brands.
