RIYADH — A smuggler has been caught trying to sneak beer into Saudi Arabia, where alcohol is forbidden. Customs officers at the Al Batha border crossing with the UAE discovered the contraband disguised as soda, according to MBC.net.

“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 the alcoholic beer was covered with Pepsi stickers,” Al Batha customs officer Abdulrahman al-Mahna was quoted as saying by Al Arabiya.

According to the officer smugglers have been turning to more and more sophisticated methods of getting their goods across and the beer is just one example. Al-Mahna added his men “are always ready and alert to catch them.”

This isn’t the first time smugglers have gone to inventive measures to get alcohol into Saudi Arabia. 

Just a couple of months ago, a Saudi man was caught on the border with Bahrain with 12 bottles of liquor sewed into his trousers, and Saudi authorities recently said they found more than  19,000 bottles of alcoholic drinks hidden in a shipment of rice and tomato paste.

As silly as that sounds, the punishment for smuggling alcohol can be severe. Saudi citizens – and sometimes foreigners, too – can be sentenced to prison and floggings if they are caught.