(MENAFN- Gulf Times) * As part of the efforts to protect the society from the scourge of drugs, the security services in Qatar managed to seize a boat in the country's territorial waters on October 15. It was coming from the United Arab Emirates, and it was stopped and checked by the Coast and Border Security patrols.
The search by the Coast and Border Security personnel found an estimated 1.8mn Tramadol pills on board the vessel. The crew admitted that all the contraband came from the UAE and this was in line with the official documents found in their possession
The Ministry of Interior (MoI) has achieved various successes and scored top rankings in positive developments in safety, security and the quality of the services offered to the public.
Such achievements have been made in spite of the ongoing blockade imposed on the country by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt for five months now. This affirms MoI's ability to deal with all circumstances and crises that impact the region, and brought the country the confidence of international organisations as evidenced with the highest ratings in peace and security, a release issued by the ministry said.
In 2016-2017, Qatar has achieved the top rating at the Arab and GCC levels on the Global Peace Index due to the high levels of safety and security in the country, in addition to the considerably low crime rates.
Among the major issues in this respect that sustained the excellence of Qatar over major countries in this field. It has one of the lowest rates of violence and murder, low number of prisoners convicted of crimes, Qatar's society is free of terrorism, and it has a stable political situation.
Regarding the police and security works, Qatar has got a high rating on the global competitiveness index (2016-2017). Qatar also attained the sixth place internationally on the Combating Organised Crimes Index, in addition to attaining the 9th place globally on the Public Satisfaction Index for the services offered by the police.
In the public security field, MoI has made great strides in reducing crime rates, as statistics show considerable drop in the number of major crimes and cases in all security departments. Major crimes constituted only 3% of the total number of the committed crimes in 2016, and dropped by 12.9% compared to the rates of the previous years. It recorded considerably less rates than the international safety levels in spite of the 6.8% increase in population in 2016.
As for the country's efforts in fighting terrorism funding and money laundering, Qatar occupied the 107 place internationally among 146 countries on the Basel Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Index 2017.
On October 15, 2017, the security department concerned spotted a motorised boat entering the Qatari waters from the UAE, and the boat was searched by the coastal and border guard patrols, where they found 1.8mn pills of the illicit drug Tramadol. Upon interrogation the crew admitted that all the illicit drugs on board came from the UAE, which was ascertained by their documentations. The boat and its content were seized and the crew arrested to face the necessary legal procedures.
Similarly, the security entities concerned with fighting illicit drugs witnessed a major drop in the number of seized drugs and drug-smuggling attempts for some drugs such as Captagon, hashish, Tramadol and Lyrica during the period after the blockade compared to the pre-blockade period. For most categories the drop was ranged from 88% to 99.9%.
Meanwhile, MoI's public services made great achievements geographically and electronically: Metrash 2 application won the 17th HH Sheikh Salem Al-Ali Al-Sabah Informatics Award for its quality and its accessibility for all users, in addition to its role in saving time and efforts at MoI transactions.
The number of Metrash 2 subscribers reached 382,422 on October 30, 2017 with 93,114 transactions and 437,058 yearly inquiries made via the application.
Metrash 2 offers to the public 160 services sparing them the need of going to the offices or headquarters of the entities.
The number of public service transactions in 2016 reached 71,565,367 which means 5,693,781 transactions a month, 198,793 a day and around 138 a minute.
The MoI strategy aims to improve the country's rankings on all security indices, and to maintain the achievements to keep the country safe and secure.
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