By Mohamed Attia
Customs authorities at Cairo International Airport, headed by Magdy Moussa, Head of the Central Administration of Passenger Customs, have foiled one of the most serious and largest drug smuggling attempts in the airport’s history.
The attempt was carried out by a passenger of Arab nationality who hid bags inside specially concealed compartments in his luggage.
The seized bags, which were wrapped in carbon materials to avoid detection by scanning devices, weighed approximately 7.5 kilogrammes and contained more than 400,000 seeds used to grow marijuana plants.
The smuggling seizure was carried out by officers from the First Administration at Terminal 3, led by Amr Abdel Moneim and Ahmed Mohamed Fawzy, acting directors of the administration. The case was discovered while processing passengers from an EgyptAir flight arriving from Brussels.
The inspection was conducted by Ahmed Mohamed Abdel Wahid, head of the green channel committee, and Sherif Mohamed Eid, customs officer in manual inspection, along with Ahmed Sayed Abdel Aziz from the X-ray inspection unit and Farag Hamdy, head of the section. A personal search was conducted by Ahmed Mohamed Refai in the presence of Hany Waziry, administration director.
A committee consisting of Mohamed Ahmed El-Sayed and Mahmoud Abdel Mawla carried out the weighing, counting, and securing of the seized items, with participation from customs officer Mina Abdel Maseeh.
Under the supervision of Mahmoud Mohamed Saeed, operations manager in charge of the arrivals hall, Ahmed Fawzy ordered a customs seizure report to be filed against the passenger after presenting the case to Magdy Moussa, who referred it to the competent prosecution.
The Nozha Prosecution, headed by Counselor Moataz Zakaria, ordered the suspect to be detained for four days pending investigation and issued orders to arrest other suspects involved in bringing the drugs into the country.
It is worth noting that there is full coordination between Passenger Customs and the General Administration for Drug Control through the airport’s anti-drug unit, led by Brigadier Bassem Haggag.
This coordination ensures immediate co-operation after any seizure to track and arrest other members of the network both inside and outside the country.
This has resulted in the arrest of large numbers of suspects and the seizure of additional quantities of drugs and various foreign currencies, especially amid increased smuggling attempts in recent months.
In 2025, the Central Administration of Passenger Customs recorded 380 customs seizure reports, including 139 related to different types of drugs. Since the beginning of 2026, 67 reports have been filed so far, including 22 drug-related cases, across Terminals 1, 2, and 3, the seasonal hall, and Sphinx Airport.
