Two Bedouin arrested with 45 kg of hashish flown from Egypt by drone
Israel Police arrested two Bedouin cousins, aged 16 and 20, from Al-Azazma in the Negev after watching a drone land near the Egyptian border and finding about 45 kilograms of hashish in their vehicle. Prosecutors are expected to file an indictment that would use a new border-sovereignty offence for the first time in the Southern District.
🇮🇱 Israel-Egypt border, Negev, Southern District · Israel
Israel Police arrested two Bedouin cousins, aged 16 and 20, from the Negev town
of Al-Azazma on suspicion of smuggling about 45 kilograms of hashish from Egypt
into Israel by drone.[1]The two were arrested along the Egyptian border
during a targeted operation by the Southern Border Patrol Unit and its
undercover unit against gangs that use drones to smuggle goods across the
frontier.[1]
Working from police and IDF intelligence, officers identified a drone suspected
of making several crossings between Israel and Egypt and later watched it land
in Israeli territory.[1]Police then watched members of the group remove items
from a vehicle, which was seized and found to hold about 45 kilograms of
hashish.[1]The two suspects fled on foot but were quickly caught and
arrested.[1]A search of the vehicle found a drone, its remote controls and
mobile phones, and material recovered showed the seized drone had allegedly made
several flights over the border that day.[1]
Both suspects were taken to Israel Police’s Southern District police
headquarters for questioning.[1]Besides importing a dangerous drug and
endangering human life, prosecutors are expected to charge them under a new
offence of violating the state’s sovereignty at the borders, never before used
in a Southern District case and carrying up to nine years in prison.[1]The
two are expected to be charged under the new offence of violating the state’s
sovereignty at the borders, an offence never before used in the Southern
District.[2]
Photos and video
View of Road 10 along the Israel-Egypt border. Photo: Yossi Aloni/Flash90Photo details
The sources give no separate date for the operation; 29 June 2026 is the publication date of the Jerusalem Post article and is used as the incident date.
The hashish weight is reported as approximately 45 kilograms, not an exact measured figure, and the article does not say whether it was laboratory-tested.
No court date, detention order or indictment is recorded; the charges described were expected, not filed.
The location of the arrest is given only as the Egyptian border in the Negev, so region-level coordinates are used.
The article's lead photo is a stock image of Road 10 on the Egypt border taken in 2023, not a picture of this operation; the drone pictured further down the page shows a March 2025 smuggling case.
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