The machine in which the captagon pills were to be smuggled from Lebanon to an African country, according to an ISF statement. (Credit: @LebISF/Twitter)
BEIRUT — The Internal Security Forces' Information Division has thwarted two drug smuggling operations and seized 960,000 captagon pills as well as 208 kilograms of hashish, the ISF and caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi announced Monday.
The first operation thwarted led to the seizure of 160,000 captagon pills hidden inside a machine intended for shipment to an African country.
“The Information Division, as a result of its continuous follow-up and crackdown on drug trafficking networks, received information that a 21-year-old Syrian national would be transporting the pills from the Bekaa to Beirut hidden in a machine,” the statement explained.
The division ambushed the alleged suspect, confiscated the pills and arrested him in the locality of Louaizeh, near Baabda.
“After interrogating him, he confessed to what was attributed to him, and that he moved the machine that contained a quantity of seized captagon pills from a warehouse in a town in the Bekaa Valley and took it to Beirut, where he was supposed to deposit it in a warehouse in Dekwaneh in preparation for shipping it abroad,” the ISF statement said.
Efforts are "underway to arrest all those involved" in the case, the statement added.
Mawlawi's press office meanwhile announced in a tweet that the security forces had successfully thwarted a second smuggling operation, this one involving 800,000 captagon pills and 208 kilograms of hashish stored inside nylon bags in a truck in Kosha, Akkar.
"A Syrian and a Lebanese were arrested, while an investigation is underway under the supervision of the competent judiciary. Work is also continuing to arrest all those involved," Mawlawi said in a statement posted on Twitter.
In November, more than 5 million captagon pills were seized by the ISF in Ghazieh, South Lebanon.
In October, Lebanese customs seized some 160,000 captagon pills at the Beirut international airport that were destined for the Sultanate of Oman via the Qatari capital Doha. Lebanese customs arrested one man, with the cooperation of the airport's security services.
Lebanese authorities have stepped up efforts to combat drug trafficking from or through Lebanon amid security restrictions on Lebanese exports by Gulf countries.