Security forces in the southern suburbs of Beirut during the implementation of the security plan. (Credit: Husam Chbaro/Annahar)
BEIRUT — Internal Security Forces (ISF) have arrested a man working for a "prominent" drug dealer in the southern suburb of Saint Therese in Beirut amid an ISF security plan taking place over the past weeks.
The arrest took place at the beginning of the month, on May 6. According to their statement, the ISF's Information Division identified and tracked the suspect, a Lebanese national known only by his initials, K.M., and caught him as he was in the process of distributing drugs in the area. The statement adds that K.M. was also driving an unregistered motorcycle.
During interrogation, K.M. confessed to selling drugs on behalf of a "known dealer" in the southern suburbs and surrounding areas. The suspect and the items seized from him, which include a handgun, 117 grams of hashish, 158 grams of marijuana, 255 grams of cocaine, and counterfeit money, have been handed over to the judiciary.
Over the past weeks, the ISF's General Directorate has maximized the deployment of security patrols and established checkpoints at different times throughout Beirut in an attempt to "maintain security and order" and deter the use of illegal motorcycles and vehicles.
The security plan, under which a large number of vehicles have been seized, is widely criticized, as many motorists and motorcyclists have been unable to get their papers in order in recent years due to repeated and sometimes extended closures of the vehicle registration centers and the backlogs these closures create.
Lebanon's main vehicle registration center (Nafaa) "exceptionally" opened its doors for a week on May 26, so owners could recover vehicles that were recently seized by the army.
