Cairo: A Saudi major who claims to have worked for the interior ministry has been detained after alleging that officials were running drug smuggling operations under cover of the Islamic Haj pilgrimage.

Major Turki bin Hamza al-Rashidi, who said that he worked in the Narcotics Control Division, claimed that a network of powerful regime insiders had made "billions" from running drugs into Saudi Arabia in a variety of ways.

Major Turki bin Hamza al-Rashidi, who has been arrested after accusing Saudi Arabian officials of using the Haj pilgrimage as a cover for smuggling drugs. Major Turki bin Hamza al-Rashidi Credit:YouTube

In a series of YouTube videos, Major Rashidi alleged that one method was the "twin buses game".

This involves a "clean bus" full of pilgrims heading for Mecca to perform the Haj being certified by customs, before the same documentation is later used to allow a "dirty bus" laden with drugs to enter the kingdom. To evade detection, all the buses are identical in make and model, down to the seat fabric. The drivers are said to use counterfeit passports and false names.