Dubai Customs said it had arrested two men attempting to smuggle approximately 1,200 items used in witchcraft and black magic into the Gulf emirate, including talisman, amulets, worry beads, fish skeletons and animal bones.
Ali Al Maghawi, director of the airport operations department at Dubai Customs, said the suspects were arrested after their bags were searched as they travelled through Dubai International Airport.
“Inspectors discovered inside the bags a great numbers of witchery writings, talisman and items which are usually used in witchcraft and sorcery work and is strictly prohibited by UAE law,” he said in a statement.
More than 1,200 items were found, including some talisman with different sizes, tin cans for amulets, metallic papers, worry beads, animal skins, sorcery knives, magic teaching books, bags containing fish skeletons, animal bones, ampules containing blood & liquids, animal drawings used in sorcery works, strings, pieces of charcoals, finger rings, oysters, leaves, powders, cotton rolls used in sorcery works, thread and some dark materials, the statement added.
The move is part of Dubai Customs’ crackdown on the smuggling of such items into the UAE, with 92 seizures related to witchery and sorcery in 2011 and 16 in the first quarter of 2012.
Black magic and sorcery are illegal under UAE law.
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