The member of the Nalu municipality, Tariq Al-Azzabi, confirmed that two trucks loaded with schoolbooks were intercepted while on their way to Tunisia via Dahiba border crossing, adding that the persons involved in the smuggling were sent to Nalut Public Prosecution.

Al-Azzabi told the press that the cargo that they intercepted last week was the second attempt of that kind, adding that the first attempt was resolved off the media.

“Smugglers are taking the schoolbooks to Tunisia pretending that they are unusable paper that will be used for recycling, and then those schoolbooks get exported to Libya again as if they are newly printed books cargo and charge huge money depending on the new foreign currency exchange rates.” He indicated.

He also said that the schoolbooks were smuggled out of the books stores of the education ministry by some of its employees.
“We have not disclosed the first attempt of smuggling because of some security issues related to those who busted the smugglers.” He explained.

The head of the Educational Syllabuses Center in Tripoli, Abdelkader Bujalala, said it is not possible that the smuggling of the books aimed at re-exporting the books to Libya as the center has contracted public companies to provide the books with huge quantities that cannot be transported by one or two trucks. He added that the contracts cannot be covered by small quantities.

“We’re in touch with the authorities that intercepted the smuggled schoolbooks and arrested the truck drivers for more details.” Bujalala added.