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By Tamer Mohamed - The Egyptian Gazette Friday, June 10, 2011 04:11:28 PM
CAIRO - Police, assisted by the Army and air-force units, have arrested a score of men with eight tonnes of hashish in one of the largest drugs hauls in several months in Egypt, security sources said.
Alexandria's Central Narcotics Bureau said that the men were being investigated for drug trafficking, after they were caught with cannabis contained in 5,923 sacks in the Western Desert, which they planned to smuggle into the country from Libya, the sources said. "If convicted, the men, whose number was not disclosed, will face the death penalty," a security source said, adding that the drugs bust was one the largest hauls in Egypt since the January 25 revolution. The men were arrested after border police officers, acting on a tip-off, trailed them while they were passing through the zig zag alleys of Egypt's Western Desert, some 620km northwest of Cairo. The hashish was found in 80 sacks that had been mounted on ten mini-trucks, the sources said. The smugglers were nabbed when forces, assisted by two air force helicopters and commando units, swooped on the truck convoy, where the suspects were planning to smuggle into the coastal city of Mersa Mattrouh, they added. "The seizure and arrest were made on Tuesday in the Western Desert. The illicit drug was loaded in eight trucks, before our men intercepted them," the sources said. They did not disclose the street value of the haul but security sources it could run into several millions of pounds Spurred on by suspicions that the Mafia considered Egypt a potential hub for drug trade after the revolution, security authorities have over the past five months tightened controls at ports.
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