Sacks containing illegal narcotics were found on beaches across Israel’s Mediterranean coast over the weekend, apparently after a botched drug smuggling attempt.
Dozens of the packages, carrying tens of kilograms of illicit materials, washed up on the shore from Tel Aviv in central Israel to Nahariya in the north. Similar packages were also found in Haifa, Hadera, and Zichron Ya’akov.
Police bomb squads were called in to ensure that no explosive material was in the sacks.
Roughly 40 more sacks were later recovered from an abandoned dinghy off the coast of Tel Aviv.
On Sunday, Israeli forces also thrwarted a drug smuggling attempt along the border with Egypt.
During the incident, IDF soldiers spotted a number of suspects attempting to smuggle drugs from Egypt into Israeli territory.
IDF soldiers were dispatched to the scene and thwarted the smuggling attempt. The soldiers confiscated 18kg of drugs, estimated at approximately 720,000 NIS.
The drugs were transferred to the Israel Police for further processing.