Informed Yemeni sources revealed the involvement of the UAE and militias loyal to it in spreading cannabis and drugs among members of the Shabwani elite forces, in addition to the involvement of elite leaders in promoting them among the recruits, during the period the elite forces were controlling the districts of Shabwa Governorate.
The Yemeni activist Salem Al-Awlaki said that the Emiratis worked “to facilitate the access of the drugs to many soldiers of the Shabwah elite inside its camps in Shabwa Governorate, and many leaders supervised the delivery of it to the soldiers, including Muhammad Al-Buhar, Wajdi Ba’oom, and (AlQunbula), commander of the first brigade (Shabwani elite) ”.
Al-Awlaki explained in a series of tweets on Twitter that the drug hashish became within a period of time within the reach of the Shabwani elite soldiers, as they used it to spread the spirit of courage, especially with the availability of cannabis material in small amounts of money not exceeding 500 riyals per day.
Al-Awlaki added: “The leadership of the Shabwani elite traded in alcohol, drugs, and hashish, and transported them within the elite military vehicles in large quantities, and they were then transported to neighboring governorates, and may reach the border areas with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
He said that a security source in Shabwa Governorate revealed earlier that Emirati forces supervised the arrival of shipments of hashish through boats from the sea, under the protection of their forces on those coasts, and distributed them to the (elite) leaders, who in turn re-distributed them to the recruits and the rest of the regions.
Al-Awlaki said that the (elite) soldiers suffered from the negative effects of the drug hashish, as incidents of wrongful killing spread between them in security points and camps, explaining that the number of dead soldiers due to stray bullets reached 57 cases.
