diff --git a/src/DB_Command.php b/src/DB_Command.php
index fe4d0f49..1a05f64e 100644
--- a/src/DB_Command.php
+++ b/src/DB_Command.php
@@ -817,6 +817,33 @@ public function import( $args, $assoc_args ) {
 				WP_CLI::error( sprintf( 'Import file missing or not readable: %s', $result_file ) );
 			}
 
+			// Check for MariaDB sandbox directive and skip it if found
+			$first_line = fgets( fopen( $result_file, 'r' ) );
+			if ( strpos( $first_line, '/*!999999\\' ) !== false ) {
+				WP_CLI::debug( 'MariaDB sandbox directive found. Creating sanitized temp file.', 'db' );
+
+				$input       = fopen( $result_file, 'r' );
+				$tmp         = tmpfile();
+				$tmp_path    = stream_get_meta_data( $tmp )['uri'];
+				$line_number = 0;
+
+				while ( true ) {
+					$line = fgets( $input );
+					if ( false === $line ) {
+						break;
+					}
+
+					if ( $line_number > 0 ) {
+						fwrite( $tmp, $line );
+					}
+
+					++$line_number; // Use pre-increment
+				}
+
+				fclose( $input );
+				$result_file = $tmp_path;
+			}
+
 			$query = Utils\get_flag_value( $assoc_args, 'skip-optimization' )
 				? 'SOURCE %s;'
 				: 'SET autocommit = 0; SET unique_checks = 0; SET foreign_key_checks = 0; SOURCE %s; COMMIT;';