Sometimes the request sounds completely harmless: drop off a bottle of vitamins for an acquaintance, pass along a bag of coffee or tea, carry a package for a relative who will meet you at the hotel. Saying no feels awkward, and saying yes feels easy. In Egypt this is one of those cases where it is far better to look impolite once than to take on a risk whose size you cannot even guess.
The rule is simple and has no exceptions: never carry or hand over to anyone in Egypt someone else's medicine, vitamins, supplements, sports nutrition, coffee, tea, parcels or any other items. Even if the person seems trustworthy and the request sounds convincing and harmless.
You are not shown the contents and the packaging is not opened in front of you, so you genuinely have no way of knowing what is inside. Cases have been recorded in Egypt of banned substances being moved disguised as ordinary medicine, vitamins, spices or food. From the outside, such packaging looks no different from the real thing.
The scheme is not limited to medicine and vitamins. Under the same pretext, someone might ask you to carry sweets, spices, tea or a souvenir set that looks completely ordinary. The rule is the same for any parcel that is not yours: if you did not buy it or pack it yourself, you do not know what is inside.
Phrases like "these are just vitamins", "it's just medicine for a relative" or "it's coffee, nothing illegal" prove nothing and guarantee nothing. The person asking you may genuinely be mistaken themselves, or may know exactly what is inside and be counting on the fact that you will not check and will not say no.
If a banned substance is found on you during a search, whether at the border or already inside Egypt, explanations like "I was just asked to carry it", "I didn't know what was inside" or "it wasn't mine" may not hold up. Formally, the substance was in your possession, and that fact becomes the starting point for a criminal case, not who actually put it there.
Egypt has strict criminal liability for producing, holding and distributing narcotic substances. Drug-related cases here have resulted in sentences up to life imprisonment and the death penalty, depending on the substance and the circumstances of the case. This is not a hypothetical clause in the law, it is a practice that should be taken seriously.
If you find yourself in such a situation, you cannot count on your embassy quickly getting you out of an Egyptian prison. Consular support exists, but it does not override local law and does not speed up the process enough to spare you months or years of proceedings. Looking after your own safety needs to happen before you cross the border, not after you have been detained.
Such requests do not only come from casual acquaintances at the hotel. Sometimes they come from people who look like part of the tourist infrastructure: a shop seller, a taxi driver, a fellow passenger on an excursion. No genuine guide, driver or representative of a tour company will ever ask you to carry someone else's parcel, medicine or bag "for a relative" or "for a friend at another hotel". If such a request comes up, that alone is reason enough to be wary and say no, not a sign of politeness on anyone's part.
This applies on the way home too, not only on arrival in Egypt. Passport and customs checks work in both directions, and a request to "just carry" a souvenir or gift for relatives can come up right before your flight home just as easily as on your first day at the resort.
Saying no once is genuinely awkward. Spending years explaining to Egyptian investigators that you "didn't know" is far harder and far more dangerous. If someone asks you to carry their medicine, vitamins or a parcel, politely refuse and do not take anything whose contents you cannot check yourself.
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