Cairo: Egyptian security authorities said they had thwarted an attempt to smuggle around 10 tonnes of drugs with an estimated value of nearly 270 million Egyptian pounds (Dh50.3 million).
The Interior Ministry said the anti-drug police in coordination with the National Security and General Security agencies had joined hands to monitor activities of a three-member gang involved in transporting and smuggling narcotic substances by using an oil tank truck in the coastal governorate of Suez to peddle them across the country.
One gangster was caught inside the truck in possession of 3.6 tonnes of hashish and 7 tonnes of the narcotic bhang as well as 250 kilos of heroin and 15 kilos of opium, the ministry added in a statement.
The two others were also arrested in Suez.
The ministry described the effort as a “firm security blow” to drug dealers.
Drug offences in Egypt, a country of around 104 million, are punishable by up to life imprisonment or the capital punishment.