An unnamed Libyan man has been accused of international arms smuggling at military court in Lebanon following the capture of ship Lutfallah II which was discovered to be carrying arms said to be for the Syrian opposition. Another 20 men have also been charged by the Commissioner of the Lebanese Government, Saqr Saqr. They all accused of purchasing, packaging, and shipping large quantities of weapons and ammunition from Libya to Tripoli, Lebanon, in order to carry out acts of sabotage. Some of these charges, if proven, could carry the death penalty. Among the accused are also persons of Syrian, Lebanese, Egyptian and Indian nationality.
CAIRO — An Egyptian police official says security forces have confiscated dozens of heavy weapons seized from smugglers near the Libyan border.
The official says the weapons include 40 surface-to-surface missiles, 17 rocket-propelled grenade launchers, mortar rounds, automatic rifles and around 10,000 artillery shells.
Authorities uncovered the weapons Thursday in three vehicles near the city of Marsa Matrouh, 430 kilometers (270 miles) northwest of Cairo on the Mediterranean coast. The official says three drivers were arrested.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the press.
In March, Egyptian security officials said that thousands of weapons are flooding into the country from neighboring Libya following the country's civil war.
Smuggling weapons from Libya for the benefit of al-Qaeda is a serious threat for the entire region, especially sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab Maghreb. This is an outcome of the lack of security in Libya, which is a golden opportunity for al-Qaeda members and arms traffickers to smuggle weapons and strengthen their positions in the region…
Libya has become a new source of smuggled weaponry for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon said on Thursday.
"Weapons are available in Libya as a result of the unstable situation there, and Hamas has exploited it to buy weapons from Libyan smugglers," the former IDF chief of staff told foreign journalists in a briefing, without elaborating on the kind of munitions involved.
With eastern Libya largely held by rebels who rose up against Muammar Gaddafi in February, arms were being brought across the border, through neighboring Egypt, to the Hamas-ruled territory, Yaalon added.
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