Saudi Arabia is ruled by Sharia, the legislation based on Islamic teachings that include precepts like how women must be covered at all times and how alcohol is prohibited - so one smuggler decided to bring in some beer just the same by disguising it as Saudi Arabia Pepsi.
An unnamed man traveling to the Middle East nation from neighboring United Arab Emirates attempted to pass 48,000 cans of Heineken as Saudi Arabia Pepsi through the border, but border authorities caught the perpetrator and apprehended him, as the country has severe penalties for the consumption of any time of alcoholic beverages.
"A truck carrying what first seemed to be normal cans of the soft drink Pepsi was stopped and after the standard process of searching the products, it became clear that the alcoholic beers were covered with Pepsi's sticker logos," said Abdulrahman Al-Mahna, the Al Batha border's General Manager, to Saudi Gazette about the so-called Saudi Arabia Pepsi cans.
Western news outlets like The Independent have described the attempt as "heroic," but the truth of the matter is that, had the Saudi Arabia "Pepsi" cans gone through, it would have been nearly 50,000 cans of unregistered liquor in the country - but then again, there's no legislation to regulate consumption other than total prohibition.
According to Gawker, aside from this particular case of the Saudi Arabia Pepsi cans, the Kingdom's Customs Twitter account is filled with pictures of confiscated alcohol, as smugglers often go to great lengths to get booze inside the nation where Prophet Muhammad was born.
In the past, other attempts to bring alcohol inside Saudi Arabian territory have included a man sewing 12 bottles of booze into his pants, while there are other stories of smugglers hiding it inside packages of foods such as rice and tomato paste.
You can watch an official clip of the very convincing (and very fake) Saudi Arabia Pepsi bottles below.
ملصقات "مشروب بيبسي" على 48 ألف علبة بيرة بالكحول كشف محاولة تهريبها جمرك البطحاء pic.twitter.com/TETuvcWRpD
— الجمارك السعودية (@KsaCustoms) November 11, 2015
