Authorities foil attempt to smuggle spying devices into Egypt through airport

CAIRO - 7 February 2021: The authorities of Cairo International Airport foiled Sunday an attempt to smuggle 27 spying devices by an Egyptian passenger coming from Greece.

The devices were confiscated, and the passenger is apprehended pending investigation, which primarily showed that he wanted to sell them for profit. 

The Egyptian security forces foiled an attempt to smuggle medicine inside a shipment of juice in November 2019.

According to a statement issued by the security forces, they received intelligence that one of the exporting companies in Qalyubia Governorate, north of Cairo, is willing to use a juice shipment to smuggle a huge amount of medicine to one of the Arab countries.

In April 2019, the Egyptian authorities thwarted an attempt to smuggle more than 2 tons of drugs, worth LE 2 billion [US $115,5 million] on board of a ship in the Red Sea, said the Ministry of Interior in a statement.

The ministry conducted prior investigations and arrested a group of drug dealers while trying to bring the drugs into the country's Red Sea governorate, the statement added. The drug dealers include two Egyptian nationals, who are fugitives from justice over charges of drug dealing, and seven other foreigners, the statement explained.

On December 31, 2018, the Egyptian authorities at Nuewiba port thwarted an attempt to smuggle large amounts of drugs hidden inside a Syrian apple consignment.

The consignment carried a large amount of the illegal drug Captagon, in violation to the pharmacy law and laws of customs, import and export. Captagon is the most popular narcotic in the Arabian Peninsula. It is a psycho-stimulant of the Fenethylline drug group.