Authorities in eastern Libya say they seized about 400 kg of hashish near Tobruk, valued at around $934,000, and arrested suspects. In Kufra, a separate raid netted more than 1.3 million pills after a firefight injured three soldiers.
At a house in an agricultural area southeast of Tobruk, eastern Libyan authorities seized about 400 kg of hashish and arrested suspects, officials said. They valued the shipment at around 6 million dinars, or $934,000.
Investigators believe it crossed from Egypt and was meant for distribution inside Libya. That remains a preliminary official assessment.
Officials have not confirmed how many people were detained. Reuters reported the seizure and the authorities' estimate of its value.
Ahmed al-Mismari, the anti-drugs agency's information and documentation officer, told Reuters that preliminary investigations indicated the hashish had been smuggled across the Egyptian border for local marketing and distribution. He said the detainees were from Libya and Egypt. Investigators have not identified the shipment's organizers or pinned down its precise route.
UN reporting cited by Reuters describes Libya as a major regional transit route for synthetic drugs and other substances. Consignments go to domestic consumers and onward to other African countries. The country's long, sparsely populated border areas make enforcement difficult. Seizures alone do not show whether trafficking networks have been dismantled or pushed elsewhere.
Another operation took place on October 10, when the Subul al-Salam Brigade said it seized more than 1.3 million narcotic pills from suspected smuggling hideouts in Kufra. A firefight injured three soldiers. Kufra lies about 1,700 km from Tripoli.
The brigade called the raid part of continuing operations against trafficking networks in Kufra and nearby border areas. Authorities have not publicly disclosed the pills' composition. They have not released a detainee count, and their country of origin remains unconfirmed. Reuters' report said the military described the targeted sites as hiding places for drugs and other illegal goods.
In a separate case in October, Libya's attorney general reported that a court in the Western Mountains region sentenced five people to death for importing more than 2 million psychotropic pills. That case is distinct from the Kufra seizure, with no established link between the consignments. An earlier pill seizure report described an Iraq-linked intelligence operation that authorities said stopped an attempted shipment of 1.2 million Captagon pills in Libya.
