Hommam Al Nassim 
The Italian authorities announced the imprisonment of an officer working in the Libyan Coast Guard, for his involvement with officers from the Italian Navy in an alleged cigarette smuggling case using a naval ship.
The Italian “Ansamed” agency revealed the arrest of the defendants on charges of smuggling cigarettes and goods on board the military ship “Capri,” offering bribes, and engaging in actions inconsistent with official duties.
The agency reported that the Italian military personnel under investigation are three officers and a junior officer in the Italian Navy, in addition to a Libyan officer working in the local coast guard.
The defendants were arrested last Friday, and the Italians were placed under house arrest while the Libyan was transferred to prison.
These quantities were manufactured in the Jebel Ali Free Trade Zone in the UAE, and then transported to North Africa, either directly or via Greece and the Balkan countries, as part of the smuggling process of more than ten billion cigarettes in 2017.
A European-African investigation revealed staggering figures for the volume of cigarette smuggling into Libya in January 2023, with the Italian mafia and armed militias involved in these operations.
The investigation published by the Institute for Security Studies showed that smugglers were able to ship about two billion cigarettes to Libya and four billion to Tunisia.
The reason for this illegal activity is the chaos and instability in the region, as armed groups exploit these operations to finance their activities.
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