By Libya Herald reporters.
Tripoli, 10 August 2017:
Around a thousand loaded 9mm pistol clips have been discovered at Tripoli’s Mitiga airport concealed in a cargo of clothing sent from Turkey, the Rada Deterrence Force has said.
Rada claimed that suspects connected with the cargo were being investigated but did not say if any arrests have yet been made. It gave no details of the shipper and consignee.
The ammunition was hidden inside garment boxes. It was detected when the packages were passed through a mobile cargo X-Ray machine supplied by the World Customs Organisation.
However, Rada has said that customs officials at Mitiga have difficulty checking all arriving cargo. It is unclear if the ammunition was discovered as a result of a random search or because of a tip-off. It is likely that the boxes in which the clips were being smuggled would have been noticeably heavier than if they contained merely garments.
Rada appears to have become particularly active with airport security. Earlier this week a Liberian national was arrested when trying to smuggle a horde of Roman and Greek coins out of the country.
