Egypt's Drug Enforcement Administration has arrested five members of a gang for operating labs to manufacture methamphetamine in Giza and Alexandria governorates, seizing EGP 200 million worth of the drug. Two of the suspects are citizens of another Arab country. The Drug Enforcement Administration seized 100 kilograms of adulterated methamphetamine, as well as a number of firearms and industrial material used in methamphetamine production. The arrests were made after extensive surveillance operations. Drugs like methamphetamine are not common in Egypt; however, Egyptian authorities recently thwarted attempts to smuggle the drug. According to the Drug Treatment and Abuse Fund in 2017, the most commonly used drug in Egypt is hashish, at 44 percent. In 2017, the pharmaceutical painkiller Tramadol was the number one drug abused by addicts who called the Drug Control Fund's hotline.
