SANAA (AFP) – Yemeni authorities destroyed on Saturday four tonnes of hashish and six million pills of amphetamines with a street value of more than 83 million dollars, incinerating them in a Sanaa field.

The drugs, seized over the past 16 months, were stored for smuggling to Arab countries across the Gulf, especially oil-rich Saudi Arabia, Saeed al-Akel, a representative of the state prosecutor, told reporters.

He described Yemen, an impoverished Arabian peninsula country, as a key transit route for drug trafficking and said the authorities sought regional cooperation to stem the flow of drugs.

Akel said about 75 suspected drug traffickers were tried in connection with the seized drugs and some of them, including foreigners, were handed prison sentences ranging from 25 years to life.

In March, a Yemeni court condemned a Pakistani man to death for drug trafficking and sentenced 14 of his compatriots to 25 years in jail.