Thursday 06/November/2025 – 01:19 PM
Customs officers at Alexandria International Airport, headed by Gamal Taha, Director General of Air Ports Customs, were able to seize an attempt to smuggle a quantity of human medicines in violation of the Pharmacy Practice Law No. 127 of 1955, the Import and Export Law No. 118 of 1975 and its executive regulations, Customs Law No. 207 of 2020 and its executive regulations, and other laws and regulations regulating that.
During the completion of procedures for passengers arriving from Jeddah on a Flyadeal flight – on Tuesday, 11/4/2025, and by passing the luggage of a number of passengers through the x-ray examination machine, Khaled Mounir, head of the x-ray examination department, and Kamal Abdel Hafez, head of the x-ray examination department, under the supervision of Islam Qabbari, director of the x-ray examination department, suspected a number of bags of the presence of foreign bodies and different densities, and Basma Kamal, the head of the shift, suspected these passengers of the presence of a quantity of medications. In the bag of each passenger, and when the passengers were asked whether these medications belonged to them, they stated that they belonged to the passenger, M.S.A., an Egyptian national (the flight supervisor).
Setting details
When passenger M.S.A. was asked whether he was in possession of anything that must be disclosed, or whose import is prohibited, or that violates the laws in force in Egypt, or that requires any import or regulatory approvals, or that he is entitled to pay customs taxes or other taxes and fees, he answered that the medicines belong to him and that he distributed them to a number of passengers. He showed signs of anxiety and suspicion, and by reviewing his passport, you can see his many hesitations.
When the matter was presented to Maher Abdel Ghani, Director of the Customs Administration, he formed a committee and inspected the passengers’ luggage with the knowledge of the formed committee. It was found that there were 281 packages of various human medicines. Upon self-searching of the passenger, nothing was found. The value for customs purposes was estimated at 744,000 pounds, the fees subject to loss were estimated at 40,287 pounds, and the compensation due was estimated at a total of 1,488,000 pounds.
Jamal Taha, Director General of Air Ports Customs, decided to take legal measures and issue a customs seizure report No. 16 of 2025. The seized items were seized by Ahmed Salman, Head of the Deposit Department, under the supervision of Mr. Muhammad Al-Desouki, Director of the Deposit Department, and the treasures were deposited in the deposit warehouse.
This comes in implementation of the instructions of Ahmed Amawy, First Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance and Head of the Egyptian Customs Authority, and Dr. Sami Ramadan and Ahmed Al-Asqalani, Deputy Heads of the Customs Authority, to tighten control over airports and customs ports and thwart all customs evasion attempts.
