RIYADH — The Ministry of Commerce announced the arrest of 13 illegal workers who were involved in running a commercial firm specialized in trading expired seafood in violation of the Anti-Commercial Fraud Law.

The inspection teams from the ministry and other agencies have seized 264 tons of seafood, such as fish, shrimp, crab sticks, and crabs. The seized items included quantities of seafood with unknown origin and imported items. More than 800,000 containers used for packaging these products were also seized.

It was found that the workers falsified the expiry dates of imported fish and shrimp products, and packed them in packages bearing new dates, in addition to claiming that they were produced locally and were meant to sell to consumers.

The Ministry, in cooperation with the joint security teams from the Riyadh Region Police, the Saudi Food and Drug Authority, and the Riyadh Region Municipality, closed the facility’s headquarters located in the Al-Murabba neighborhood in central Riyadh and its warehouse in Al-Sulay neighborhood, located east of Riyadh.

The arrested workers were referred to the Public Prosecution to complete the legal procedures against them in accordance with the provisions of the Anti-Commercial Fraud Law and the Anti-Concealment Law. All the seized items were confiscated and destroyed, and their supply and distribution to sales outlets were stopped.

The Ministry of Commerce reiterated its determination to combat violators of the Anti-Commercial Fraud Law and applying statutory penalties against them. The law stipulates the imposition of penalties of up to three years in prison, fines of up to SR1 million or of both, in addition to publicizing names of the convicts in local media at their own expense, besides the deportation of illegal workers and not allowing them to return to the Kingdom on work visa.

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