Turkish police office in Ankara, Turkey. (Credit: AFP)
BEIRUT — Turkish intelligence forces thwarted an operation to smuggle "a large and diverse amount of drugs coming from Lebanon via Syria," the Turkish Ikhlas Agency reported Monday.
"The efforts of the Turkish intelligence were successeful in thwarting the smuggling of the drug shipment after an operation that lasted for two months and in which two local military factions in northern Syria participated," explaining that "26 people from a drug smuggling and trafficking gang were arrested, and the authorities confiscated about 621 thousand Captagon pills, 50 kilograms of hashish, and 208 grams of methamphetamine, and seized 3 vehicles belonging to the gang, and raided 6 homes and a warehouse," Ikhlas reported.
"The Turkish security authorities explained that the drugs came from Lebanon to the areas administered by Turkey via the Homs-Raqqa road," Ikhlas concluded.