Egypt seizes 7.5 tonnes of hashish in three-month crackdown
Egypt's anti-narcotics bureau said it seized 7.5 tonnes of hashish and detained more than 300 distributors in raids over three months, triggering a nationwide shortage that doubled street prices. A second account put the year's seizures above six tonnes and quoted officials denying the crackdown alone caused the dry spell.
General Mostafa Amer, director of the Interior Ministry’s anti-narcotics
bureau, announced in late March 2010 that 7.5 tonnes of hashish and 25kg of
heroin had been seized in raids over the previous three months.[1]More than
300 distributors were detained in the same operation, he said.[1]Ennahar’s
April account, citing the authorities, put hashish seizures since the beginning
of the year at more than six tonnes.[2]
The crackdown was followed by an unprecedented shortage: a 150g block that
normally sold for 1,500 Egyptian pounds doubled in price, and smokers told
reporters they could not find the drug.[1]A Cairo resident said a quantity
that cost 2,600 pounds a few months earlier then cost 3,500 pounds and took
months to obtain.[2]Most hashish on the Egyptian market arrives illegally
from Morocco through the porous border with Libya, while Lebanese shipments
come through Sinai; some users turned to local bango marijuana, whose prices
also soared.[1][2]Deputy Interior Minister Hamdi Abdel Karim said the fight
was never over and the ministry hoped to keep curbing trafficking.[2]Several smokers and analysts quoted disputed that the raids caused the
shortage, blaming corrupt officials or internal power struggles.[1][2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The exact day of General Amer's late-March announcement is not given; 31 March 2010 is used as the report date.
The Times reports 7.5 tonnes of hashish seized while Ennahar reports more than six tonnes since the beginning of the year; the report uses the bureau's announced figure.
The 25kg of heroin seized alongside the hashish is mentioned but not counted in cannabis figures.
No breakdown of the raids' locations, dates or court outcomes was published.
People quoted in both outlets dispute that the raids alone caused the shortage.
No photograph of the seizures with a recoverable direct image address was found in the opened sources.
Customs officers at Hurghada International Airport stopped a foreign passenger arriving from a European country and found a plastic roll of green pieces and two bottles, one holding a green plant, all suspected to be marijuana. The Hurghada prosecution is investigating the seizure, and customs filed report No. 12 of 2026.
Customs officers at Hurghada International Airport found a black bag holding 55.5 grams of a green herb suspected to be marijuana in the luggage of a passenger arriving from Turkey. They filed customs seizure report No. 9 of 2026 and held the material; no arrest or charge has been reported.
Cairo postal customs stopped a US parcel of six hair- and hand-care containers weighing 6 kg that airport anti-drug officers said was cannabis oil worth about 12 million Egyptian pounds; prosecutors ordered a foreign national held for four days.
Egypt's drug-control police arrested seven people in four operations in Alexandria and Sharqia and seized 64 kg of hashish, the Interior Ministry said. A woman arrested in Zagazig was found with 5 kg of hashish, a pistol, ammunition and a car, and police valued the haul at about 6 million Egyptian pounds.
