Two major drug finds on cargo vessels in two days

By Ashraf Abdul Wahab.

Tripoli, 10 June 2014:

Two major drugs busts in the last 48 hours have netted police and customs officials . . .[restrict]around 15 tons of hashish.

The first discovery was made yesterday on a Liberian-flagged container vessel docked in Benghazi. Police, acting on a tip-off, searched three refrigerated containers and found around five tons of cannabis. It is not yet clear where the containers were loaded. The vessel, which has not been named, reportedly last called at Malta.

In the second bust today at Khoms, the local CID with members of the public prosecutor’s office swooped on a vessel identified as the Maersk Regensburg which had arrived from Senegal.  Sniffer dogs were used to detect containers where the drugs had been hidden, at the bottom of crates loaded with vegetables and fruits, including water melons.  The haul of around ten tons is one of the largest made in the recent campaign against drug smuggling.  It is alleged that the crates were to be delivered to a local food importer.

Both consignments of cannabis are to be destroyed in front of the public prosecutors. [/restrict]