By Chinasa Nwankwo
Libyan authorities seized about 100,000 ecstasy pills bearing the image of ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi, security officials said.
The shipment, smuggled from Europe, was intercepted after security agents received information that a drug gang planned to transport the pills by sea, according to a statement issued by Al Rada for Combating Terrorism and Organised Crime.
The security agency said officers tracked the shipment until it arrived at a Libyan port, where they intercepted it and found the drugs concealed inside a cargo van.
Images released by the agency showed brown pills moulded in the shape of Gaddafi’s head and shoulders, with his facial features and distinctive robes pressed into their surface.
The agency said the drugs had arrived from an unspecified European country, adding that several suspects had been referred to prosecutors.
Libya has emerged as a major regional transit hub for synthetic drugs and other narcotics destined for local users and markets across North Africa and the wider continent, according to a UN report released in January.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said drug gangs had exploited the country’s prolonged instability since 2011, when Gaddafi was overthrown in a NATO-backed uprising.
The seizure comes as Libya remains politically divided between the UN-recognised Government of National Unity (GNU) in the west and authorities aligned with military commander Khalifa Haftar, who controls much of the east and south.
The Tripoli-based Presidential Council has acted as head of state since a UN-facilitated political dialogue in 2021.
(NAN)
