RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Drugs are still finding their way into the Gaza Strip underground, despite Egypt closing the majority of the smuggling tunnels along its border with Gaza in 2013. Wael Awaja, director of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Palestinian Rafah, alleged that although the Egyptian army had destroyed the tunnels permitting food and merchandise to reach Gaza residents, it kept open the tunnels that allow drugs to flow into the territory.
In an interview with Al-Monitor, Awaja accused Egyptian authorities of routinely flooding Gaza with drugs, calling it an intended and clear policy. Awaja said, “The tunnels are adjacent to the southern border, and their security control falls within the Egyptian and Israeli sides and cannot be easily accessed by us. They are a danger to our security personnel, but this does not mean that there hasn’t been significant efforts to eliminate the drugs, whose numbers have dropped dramatically.”
Awaja said his organization seized a number of the main drug dealers in Rafah, which decreased the amount of drugs being distributed. “We recently caught a large number of big dealers in Rafah. For example, a few days ago we captured two dealers with 3,500 boxes of Tramadol, which totaled 350,000 pills, in addition to 13,000 ‘happy’ pills, which were smuggled through the tunnels,” said Awaja. Even so, he added, “Our fight against drugs, and pills in particular, is always a step behind the smugglers in terms of the methods and places that they use to smuggle their drugs.”
Awaja explained that a law was passed in 2013 making the abuse and trafficking of drugs a felony. Previously they had been misdemeanors. He said the change has helped decrease the amount of smuggled drugs. The Legislative Council in the Gaza Strip, represented by the Change and Reform bloc, affiliated with Hamas, approved the Drugs and Mental Stimulants law, on its second reading in August 2013, establishing severe penalties with the goal of deterrence, including tougher sanctions against dealers, who could face the death penalty, and penalizing drug users.
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