Police at Beirut's international airport seized nearly six kilos of Captagon pills, hidden in chocolate, bound for the Gulf, the official National News Agency (NNA) reported on Friday.

The Internal Security Forces (ISF) inspection service at Rafik-Hariri International Airport was able to prevent this smuggling attempt. The travelers in possession of the Captagon-filled chocolates were “Syrians on their way to the United Arab Emirates.”

Lebanese security forces regularly announce arrests and seizures linked to trafficking of captagon, an illegal amphetamine produced in Lebanon and Syria, whose producers compete inventively to export it illegally, notably to the Gulf, where it is prized as a party drug. Customs and security forces have already found pills in foodstuffs, industrial equipment and trinkets.

Overland export routes through Syria have also been cut off since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime. Western governments have long accused the former Syrian president's brother, Maher al-Assad, and his entourage of turning Syria into a narco-state, flooding the Middle East with Captagon.