Kuwait foils attempt to smuggle drug-laced paper sheets

Kuwait's General Administration of Customs announced on Sunday that officers foiled an attempt to smuggle a large quantity of narcotics hidden within A4-sized paper sheets. The seizure involved 1,603 sheets weighing a total of 13.154kg, which authorities described as being saturated with a chemical narcotic substance. The attempt was discovered during a luggage scan of a French national arriving from London on a visitor's visa. The passenger and the seized materials have been transferred to the General Administration for Combating Drugs and Alcohol. This operation follows Kuwait's announcement of the largest drug bust in its history, involving nearly $500 million worth of Lyrica. Sheikh Fahad Al Yousef, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, stated that the haul included five tonnes of the drug in powder form and nearly four million capsules. Lyrica, the brand name for pregabalin, is a prescription medication for nerve pain and epilepsy that is increasingly being misused as a recreational drug.