A joint field campaign carried out by the Jeddah Municipality yesterday resulted in the seizure of 16,450 kg of unidentified tobacco products inside a violating warehouse in the Al-Khumra district south of the governorate. The warehouse was used for packaging tobacco products, in addition to operating an independent plastic recycling and waste bag production activity.

The Director General for Monitoring and Addressing Negative Phenomena, Yasser bin Seraj Bakhsh, explained that the field teams inspected the warehouse and found it was fully exploited for grinding and packaging large quantities of unidentified 'tombak' (tobacco) substance. Additionally, there were two rooms allocated for worker housing, alongside machines and equipment used for processing and manufacturing tobacco products.

He stated that the campaign, implemented with support from a number of relevant authorities, resulted in the seizure of 16,450 kg of raw 'tombak' and 450 bags of pre-packaged 50-gram containers. All seized quantities were destroyed on site with the support of the municipality's competent departments, and legal procedures were completed against the violators.

He added that the inspection revealed another independent activity inside the warehouse: a plastic recycling factory producing waste bags with a commercial name printed on the products. The usable waste bags were inventoried and handed over to the Istimrar Association for preserving blessings.

He noted that the site was seized and legal procedures were completed against its owner, in preparation for its closure after the completion of legal procedures.

The Jeddah Municipality affirms its continued inspection campaigns to monitor violating activities and reduce illegal practices that affect public health, calling on citizens and residents to report any observations via the 'Baladi' application or the unified reporting center (940).