Israeli territory is used as “an important land route” for illegal traffic in forbidden narcotics from Lebanon through Syria, Jordan and the Negev into Egypt, according to a study from a special five-man committee of experts which reported its findings to the United Nations Secretary General here today.
The special narcotics mission was appointed by Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold earlier this year and surveyed the illegal traffic in narcotics through visits to Afghanistan, Cyprus, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, the Trucial states, Turkey, Syria, Egypt and Yemen.
“There is a large-scale traffic,” the committee reported, “flowing from the north through Jordan, over the Israeli border, across the Negev desert, then over the Israel-Egyptian border and on to a market in Egypt. The smugglers’ efforts along this route are well organized and coordinated but there is no cooperation whatever between enforcement forces.
“The reason for this situation is a well-known political one, and thus beyond the scope of the mission to comment on–it can only point out that while the situation exists the smugglers have all the advantage,” the report stressed.
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