The smell arrived before the story. Last Thursday afternoon, during routine activity at the A-Za\u2019im checkpoint, located east of Jerusalem near the main entry route from Ma\u2019ale Adumim, a commercial vehicle stopped for inspection did not initially appear unusual. But something in the air was different. A strong, sharp odor rose from the vehicle and immediately caught the attention of the officers on site. Within moments, a routine check turned into a serious suspicion – and the suspicion into an unusually large discovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the trunk was opened, the method became clear. Cardboard boxes filled with towels were neatly stacked, seemingly designed to create a sense of ordinariness and divert attention. Beneath that everyday cover, however, were dozens of large sacks packed with a substance suspected to be drugs, with a total weight of hundreds of kilograms. What looked like an ordinary delivery vehicle was quickly revealed as part of a significant smuggling attempt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was not advanced technology or prior intelligence that stopped the shipment, but the human sense of smell. The unusual odor prompted officers to move the vehicle to a thorough inspection lane and conduct a deeper search. Alertness, experience, and swift coordination between Border Police forces around Jerusalem, the crossings unit, and detectives from the Jerusalem District traffic investigation unit came together in a precise moment. The driver, a 68-year-old resident of Rishon LeZion, was arrested at the scene and taken for questioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jerusalem District Police said: \u201cThe alertness of the forces, their professionalism, and the joint activity at the checkpoint led to the prevention of a significant drug smuggling attempt, as part of the ongoing effort to combat serious crime and protect public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The suspected drugs, divided into 48 large sacks, were transferred for laboratory testing, stopping the smuggling operation before it could continue on its route.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The smell arrived before the story. Last Thursday afternoon, during routine activity at the A-Za\u2019im checkpoint, located east of Jerusalem near the main entry route from Ma\u2019ale Adumim, a commercial vehicle stopped for inspection did not initially appear unusual. But something in the air was different. A strong, sharp odor rose from the vehicle and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":136569,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"How Do 48 Packages of Drugs Smell?","_seopress_titles_desc":"A-Za\u2019im checkpoint near Jerusalem: a strong odor exposed hundreds of kilograms of drugs almost smuggled","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10327,9319,10345,9314],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-136568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking","8":"category-jerusalem-updates","9":"category-law-crime","10":"category-main-item"},"acf":{"subtitle":"A-Za\u2019im checkpoint near Jerusalem: a strong odor exposed hundreds of kilograms of drugs almost smuggled"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}