The Libyan Customs Authority announced the seizure of 269 kilograms of cocaine, at the port of Al-Khoms, northwest of the country.
It stated that it received information last week, that a 40-foot container loaded with frozen chicken from Brazil, contained cocaine.
The seized shipment was sent to a laboratory, where the substance was proven to be cocaine. The authorities followed the container’s route, beginning in Brazil, passing through Spain, Italy, and then Libya as its final destination.
The container was under surveillance, in order to arrest the owner. Although he did not come to claim the goods.
“This seizure could be the largest in North Africa, as well as the first big and rare seizure by the Libyan Customs Authority, which suffers from a lack of capabilities and financial support to carry out its work,” the statement concluded.
In November, the Public Prosecutor’s Office announced the seizure of 14,910 pieces of hashish and 829,830 narcotic tablets. These were hidden in a container designated for transporting durable goods coming from Turkey, at the seaport of Misrata.
The office ordered that the perpetrators be referred to the competent authorities to complete all legal procedures against them, and confiscate the narcotics.
The drug trade in Libya has proliferated since the 2011 civil war. the Maltese authorities recently seized 612kg of cocaine en route to Libya, in a record-breaking haul worth some €69 million euros.
In May, the Head of Libya’s INTERPOL National Central Bureau, Adel Bentaleb claimed that there has been a marked increase in drug traffickers using Libya as a transhipment point. This includes drugs from as far as South America.
“While many of these drugs are neither produced nor consumed here, this has not spared us from the violent crime inevitably wrought by such activity, which we are determined to combat alongside INTERPOL,” Bentaleb said.
INTERPOL has said drugs worth nearly €100 million euros have been seized in Africa and the Middle East, during a large international police operation in March and April of 2021.
