Anti-narcotics squads are once again raiding bhang (marijuana) plantations throughout Egypt, especially in the Sinai Peninsula, in a new effort to stamp out illegal drug use, the Egyptian Gazette said on Friday, quoting press reports.
Last year, police netted 30 tons of locally-grown marijuana in raids nationwide, only 10 percent of the country's estimated crop, the Al Wafd opposition party's daily said.
Marijuana grows fast and can be cultivated cheaply and easily in Egypt's hot climate. It does not require any elaborate chemical processing like hashish or opium, making it less costly to produce and easier to handle.
It first appeared in significant quantities in Egypt in the 1980s with the arrival of Sudanese nationals fleeing their country because of war and drought, the paper said.
Egyptian drug users found it a cheap substitute for hashish, which had become rare and expensive in Egypt, according to the report.
The Egyptian anti-drug department managed in October, in collaboration with the armed forces, to locate 49 farms cultivating marijuana and seize one ton of the drug during a two-day campaign launched in north Sinai, the daily Al Akhbar reported at the time.
The security and armed forces used helicopters in their campaign, it said.
The daily said that the campaign was launched on the instructions of Minister of Interior Habib Al Adli, in order to eradicate the drug trade and pot farmers.
On the first day of the campaign, 30 farms were discovered on the mountainous area of Wadi Shahrour, belonging to three brothers who were arrested.
On the second day, 19 other farms and large amounts of the drug were located. Some of the drug traffickers were arrested while others fled the area, and all the confiscated goods were destroyed - Albawaba.com
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