Army vehicles deployed inside the Palestinian camp in Shatila, during an operation targeting alleged drug traffickers, on May 16, 2024. (Screenshot from a video published on X)
BEIRUT — The Lebanese Army raided Shatila Palestinian refugee camp, located in the southern suburbs of Beirut, on Thursday, to arrest "significant drug traffickers," according to a military source who spoke with L'Orient-Le Jour on condition of anonymity. The raid resulted in 37 arrests and one death among those the army was pursuing.
Announcing the operation on X (formerly known as Twitter), the army reported that the raid targeted "drug traffickers and other troublemakers" within Shatila.
“There was an exchange of gunfire between the army and the suspects,” the statement added.
By early afternoon, the army had announced the arrest of 37 individuals allegedly involved in drug trafficking in Beirut and other regions. The operation led to the seizure of “large quantities of cocaine, keif [cannabis], and salvia pills [a hallucinogenic plant], as well as arms and ammunition.”
During the raid, which was carried out in the “Hangar” area of Shatila, one suspect was killed and another injured.
The military source said that among those arrested were a “major drug trafficker in the camp as well as several individuals involved in various types of drug trafficking.” The nationalities of those arrested were not disclosed.
Footage captured by motorists in the area and shared on social media shows a substantial deployment of tanks and army vehicles in Shatila. In one video, presumably shot inside the camp, an army bulldozer is seen demolishing a concrete wall in a narrow alley.
Drug traffickers and dealers will often seek cover in Palestinian refugee camps, as the Lebanese Army rarely operates within these areas. Instead, security is typically maintained by local Palestinian factions.
Lebanese authorities claim to be doubling down in their efforts to combat drug trafficking in Lebanon and abroad, a practice regularly denounced as insufficient by the Gulf States, which have often intercepted the transport of drugs, especially the highly addictive Captagon, en route from Lebanon to other countries.
On Monday, the Internal Security Forces (ISF) seized 600,000 Captagon pills, weighing around 110 kg and hidden in a water heater, which traffickers had attempted to smuggle out of Lebanon through the Masnaa border crossing in the Bekaa Valley. On April 3, the ISF seized 27 kg of hashish, a condensed form of cannabis, concealed in coffee bags at a warehouse in the Mar Mikhael district, near the Beirut port. Just a week prior, police intercepted nearly 150 kg of the same substance.
