Riyadh - Saudi customs agents intercepted more illicit drugs from smugglers trying to enter the country during the past two months than during any other two months in the kingdom's history, a spokesman said on Saturday.

Over the course of May and June, Saudi customs agents seized 41 kilograms of hashish, 14 million illegal pills, and 4 kilograms of heroin "smuggled in the shoes and bowels of travelers," a statement from the Saudi customs authority said.

It was the largest haul during any similar period in Saudi history, Abdullah al-Kharbush, a spokesman for the agency, said in remarks carried by the official Saudi news agency.

Drug trafficking is punishable by beheading in Saudi Arabia, though the United Nations' drug-control agency notes that executions for drug smuggling have declined in recent years.

The London-based human rights organisation Amnesty International found in a 2008 report that Saudi authorities execute an average of more than two people a week for all crimes punishable by death, and that those executed were disproportionately foreigners from poor countries. (dpa)