Two men on visit visas appeared in the Court of First Instance on Monday charged with possession of 192kg of amphetamine pills for peddling.

The two Saudi men denied the charges. One of them, aged 31, admitted using drugs but claimed it was in his country.

The other defendant, aged 26, denied giving other suspects, who have been referred to the Court of Misdemeanors, five tablets of the same drug to try as a sample.  

The arrest was made on December 5, last year.

A police major of the anti-narcotics division said they received reliable information that the 26-year-old accused possessed a large quantity of drugs and was a member of an international gang.

"On December 5, 2016, we learned he was in Abu Hail area outside a café. We followed him till Al Jafiliya where he parked his car in a sandy yard behind the metro station. He was joined by his accomplice. We raided their cars and found five bags loaded with tablets in the 26-year-old accused's car. He claimed he picked up the drugs from an unknown person in Abu Hail upon the instructions of a man in Saudi Arabia. He said he was asked to keep the tablets with him and wait for that man to tell him when to deliver some of them to someone. He was to get paid SR900,000 for the job".

The anti-narcotics police arrested other men in a sting operation when they met the accused to take some tablets to try them