Spanish
Lebanon announced this Monday that it has dismantled an "international network" of drug traffickers and seized 6.5 million Captagon pills (a type of amphetamine) and 700 kilograms of hashish before smuggling them to Saudi Arabia.
Lebanese Interior Minister Ahmad Hajjar pointed out in a press conference that "the head and several members of a network of international dimension operating between Lebanon, Turkey, Australia and Jordan" have been arrested, and that the drug was seized "before it reaches the port of Beirut".
"The seizure of 6.5 million Captagon pills, prepared for smuggling to Saudi Arabia through the port of Beirut, and the arrest of the network leader and others, occurred simultaneously (...) the operation was intercepted before reaching the port of Beirut for shipment," said Hajjar, quoted by the National News Agency, NNA.
He detailed that the dismantling of that "Captagon and hashish smuggling network of international dimension", and the "detention of its leader and other individuals" has been possible thanks to the cooperation between Lebanese security agencies with Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
The minister did not specify dates or the number and nationalities of those arrested, although he indicated that "this group was under surveillance for months until we were able to arrest them and dismantle the drug trafficking network."
According to Hajjar, the Lebanese Army and security forces have carried out in recent months, "without announcing it, several effective security operations, during which individuals linked to terrorism, espionage and criminal actions have been arrested."
Syria was a major production center for that type of drug due to the instability in the country during the government of Bashar al-Assad, deposed last December, which also affected Lebanon because of the influence that the Shiite group Hezbollah, an ally of Al-Assad, had in the country.
That drug was exported to neighboring countries, especially Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, through the porous borders with Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey.
Following the fall of Al Assad's regime on December 8th of last year, millions of Captagon pills were discovered, the trade name for an amphetamine also known as "the poor man's cocaine".
