11 million narcotic pills seized in Libya's Misurata port

TRIPOLI, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- Customs authorities of the port of the Libyan city of Misurata, 200 km east of the capital Tripoli, seized on Sunday 11 million narcotic pills.

"The anti-smuggling and drugs department and the customs inspection unit have seized two containers coming from Asia and Europe, containing 11 million tablets of Tramadol," Ahmed Al-Saghir, a Misurata customs official, told Xinhua.

"The smugglers tried to camouflage and not to draw attention when they put the shipment of the narcotic pills inside two containers. The first one contained electric appliances and the second contained imported juice boxes," Al-Saghir said.

Narcotics drugs are regularly seized in Libya, especially in ports, due to weak security procedures.

Italian authorities have managed to thwart the smuggling of 24 million Tramadol tablets from India to Libya last year, which worth an estimated of 50 million euros (about 62 million U.S. dollars).

According to Italian police investigations, the shipment was intended to fund IS activities in Libya. Enditem