CAIRO: Cairo International Airport authorities foiled an attempt by an Egyptian passenger to smuggle new mobile phones and electronics on his arrival from the United States.
Authorities reportedly had prior information about the man’s attempt to pass the electronics, which are worth a 500,000 EGP ($63,000), without paying their customs. The man was arrested right after his plane landed at Cairo airport.
The seizures include 26 iPhone mobile phones, as well as other electronics; they were confiscated by the customs department at the airport.
Preliminary investigations with the passenger revealed that his smuggling attempt was for the interest of a company selling phones in Egypt.
The customs department at the Cairo Airport has recently stopped several attempts to smuggle drugs, money, artifacts.
On Friday, airport authorities stopped Saudi and Bahraini passengers over attempting to smuggle 820,000 Saudi Riyal and United Arab Emirates Dirham outside Egypt.
On Oct.12, a Dutch passenger, who is of Egyptian descent, was arrested before smuggling “huge amount of narcotic pills and eight grams of marijuana” inside chocolate boxes.