The Head of Libya’s Anti-Narcotics Agency, Adel Abdel-Aziz and his accompanying delegation visited Malta to discuss cooperation in combating drug smuggling.
In a statement on Monday, the Agency said Libya’s delegation met with the Deputy Commander of the Maltese Police, and discussed ways to confront smuggling.
The meeting dealt with ways to expand security cooperation and activate the terms of the agreement between Libya and Malta signed in 1995 regarding drug smuggling. They also discussed a number of bilateral security issues.
In 2020, Maltese authorities seized 612kg of cocaine en route to Libya, in a record-breaking haul worth some €69 million Euros.
The cocaine was being shipped from Ecuador and Columbia, and was discovered hidden in a container on a ship at the Malta Freeport late on Wednesday.
Customs officials seized 510 packets weighing 1.2kg each in what it described as a record-breaking seizure from a single container. Customs agents doubted the ship’s cargo after discrepancies in the scanning image were found. The goods on the pallets of one container appeared to be dense compared to others, which prompted them to unload and dismantle one of the pallets.
“During the whole of 2019 a total of 750kg were intercepted by Customs from 16 containers,” the Maltese Customs Department has said.
Matt Herbert, research manager for the North Africa and Sahel Observatory at the Global Initiative, said earlier this year that Malta was not likely the final destination for the cocaine. “Drug shipments via container shipping in effect need to blend into the mix and accept the itinerary of the cargo vessel,” he said. “This one happened to call in Malta.”
From Libya, the cocaine would likely go to southern Italy or the Balkans, with smaller volumes flowing to Turkey, and via Egypt to the wider Middle East.
Recently, Spokesman for Libya’s Government of National Unity (GNU), Mohamed Hamouda rejected the Egyptian-Greek statements regarding the legitimacy of the GNU. He stressed that the legitimacy of the government, “is determined by the Libyan people and no one else.”