Internal Security Forces seizes hashish hidden in a brazier to be smuggled from Lebanon to Belgium. (Credit: ISF)
BEIRUT — Lebanon's Internal Security Forces arrested a suspected member of a drug smuggling network from Lebanon to Belgium and seized "an amount of hashish" hidden in a brazier, the ISF said in a statement on Friday.
The ISF said that the member of the overseas drug smuggling network, M. H., has Palestinian nationality and was arrested in Aramoun on March 17.
According to the ISF statement, security personnel seized The ISF said it seized hashish and a forged Lebanese identity card from the man.
An ISF spokesperson reached by L'Orient Today could not specify the amount of hashish seized.
The ISF also said that it was able to identify the head of the network, F.C., who is Lebanese and was previously wanted by the Lebanese judiciary.
M.H. reportedly confessed that "the mastermind of the network was in the process of smuggling an amount of hashish inside a brazier to Belgium, and that [M.H.] was assigned to transport it from Baalbeck to Beirut in order to deliver it to a shipping company to smuggle it abroad."
Work is underway to arrest the rest of the network's members, the ISF said.
On Wednesday, the ISF also arrested the suspected head of a network smuggling illicit drugs from South America to Lebanon.
The suspect reportedly confessed that he was "heading a drug smuggling network from some South American countries to Lebanon and that he was in the process of smuggling two shipments of cocaine from Chile to Lebanon."
Lebanese authorities have been ramping up efforts in recent months to fight the production and trafficking of drugs, especially Captagon, in response to criticism from the Gulf monarchies denouncing the country as a trafficking hub.