Egypt nabs 4 men smuggling arms and blueprints into Gaza

Egyptian border police detained four men in the Sinai Peninsula attempting to smuggle arms and sensitive maps of Egyptian defense installations along the border into Gaza.

The suspects were captured near the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip and “were attempting to smuggle blueprints and designs for Egyptian police, army and intelligence facilities,” an Egyptian security official told Ma’an News on Wednesday evening. He added that the men had “automatic weapons, ammunition, bombs, landmines, and anti-aircraft shells.”

Ma’an said the suspects admitted that they were to pass on the weapons and blueprints to contacts in the Strip, who planned to target facilities located in Rafah, Sheikh Zuwaid and el-Arish, all Egyptian towns along the Gazan border.

Egyptian security forces have been working to return law and order to the peninsula, which is thought to be home to several terror cells working to smuggle weapons into Gaza.

On Monday, Egyptian authorities uncovered a munitions cache, including antitank weapons, buried near the border with Israel. The weapons were found in an underground storage room in the town of al-Jora, about five kilometers from the border, and included 15 antitank mines, grenades and other weapons.

In February Egyptian authorities intercepted a truck carrying two tons of explosives that was heading for Gaza, where the contents were apparently to be smuggled into the coastal enclave.

Earlier in the month Egyptian security officials claimed to have foiled five attempts to smuggle weapons from Sinai into Gaza in the previous weeks. In January another truck carrying a ton of explosive was seized as it headed from Cairo to Sinai.

The effort to clean up the peninsula was sparked by an attack on an Egyptian army position in Rafah last year that left 16 border guards dead. In January, seven Egyptian policemen were injured in an ambush by Islamic terrorists.