Social media pioneers have released an image showing an attempt to smuggle alcoholic drinks into Qatar, to facilitate their entry into stadiums hosting World Cup matches.
The Doha authorities had announced two days before the opening ceremony of the World Cup on 20 November that alcohol would be banned in the vicinity of the stadiums and that the beer sales centers around the stadiums would be removed and restricted to fans only areas. , and has also become available to people who have purchased expensive hospitality packages that include locked rooms inside World Cup stadiums. .
newspaper said,Wall Street JournalThe “last-minute” decision to ban the service of beer outside Qatar’s World Cup stadiums “came directly from the royal family in the emirate”, the Gulf, after growing concern among conservative Qataris over the issue.
Social media has been filled with photos and video clips of some fans who devise different methods to bring alcoholic beverages into stadiums, without verifying their authenticity.
Among the images that have recently spread in this regard, one claimed that the Qatari security men had managed to seize large quantities of beer that were wrapped in wrappers with the soft drink logo in a way that was difficult to detect.
But the intelligence and fact-checking department of the agencyAssociated pressHe pointed out that this image is old and has nothing to do with the World Cup in Qatar.
According to the US agency, this photo dates back to 2015, when one of those who arrived in Saudi Arabia through the Al-Bathaa border crossing with the United Arab Emirates attempted to smuggle in a large quantity of beer cans, amounting to 48,000 cans.
And that person had tried to smuggle it in an innovative way, so much so that “Pepsi drink” stickers were put on beer cans.
The director of customs at the port of Al-Bathaa at the time explained that a shipment had arrived to them transported on one of the trucks which had been presented to customs with the intention of crossing a “transit” of a neighboring country.
After verifying the shipment details and prior to initiating the usual tracking and inspection process, it was found that the transit declaration stated that the shipment being transported consisted of ‘soft drinks’.
During the inspection procedures on the truck and its cargo, it was revealed that the soft drink logo on the cans was nothing more than stickers that had been affixed very tightly at the factory to these cans, which turned out to be beer cans.
