A man enters an Egyptian military outpost at the Israel-Egypt border as seen from southern Israel September 27, 2021. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

The Israeli army said Thursday it has thwarted a major drug smuggling attempt along the country’s southern border with Egypt, arresting an operative involved.

The IDF confiscated 230 pounds of drugs worth an estimated worth of about 1 million shekels ($300,000). The army also apprehended a suspect who is accused of planning and carrying out the smuggling attempt. IDF troops found night-vision goggles, two cellphones used by smugglers in the area, and other equipment.

Israel’s security forces have in recent months foiled a number of smuggling attempts along the country’s frontiers, from the south to the northern border with Lebanon. Back in March, the IDF busted a drug and weapons-smuggling ring run by the Hezbollah militant group and Iran on the Lebanese border. The army discovered that Israeli and Palestinian smugglers had met with Lebanese operatives several times in order to transfer weapons into Israel and coordinate terrorist activity.

Separately, the IDF said, in an overnight operation conducted with the Israel Police and Israel Security Agency in several towns in the West Bank, a total of eight Palestinians  suspected of terror activities were arrested and weapons were seized.

In the city of Jericho, in the Jordan Valley, IDF soldiers arrested a suspect in possession of illegal weapons after confiscating a handgun and other weapons.

During the counterterrorism operations, security forces apprehended wanted terror suspects in the West Bank towns of Yata, Al-Tahta, Bani Naim and Irtah. The IDF said no injuries were reported.

Israeli security forces have stepped up counter-terror operations in the West Bank, after a string of terrorist attacks by Palestinian and Israeli Arab perpetrators since March that killed 19 people.