On the second floor of Beirut airport, representatives of the various branches of the security apparatus cross paths, Thursday, June 5, 2025. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L’Orient-Le Jour)
BEIRUT — Customs at Beirut’s Airport seized on Wednesday ten kilograms of cocaine, carried by a Lebanese passenger M.B. coming from from Addis Ababa, according to the state-run National News Agency (NNA).
The seized drugs, with a market value estimated at around 1.5 million dollars, had been concealed inside her luggage.
Following instructions from the competent public prosecutor, the passenger was interrogated and arrested before being handed over, along with the seized drugs, to the Narcotics Control Bureau.
Lebanese authorities have recently stepped up efforts to combat drug trafficking, which has been at the root of political and diplomatic tensions with Gulf countries in recent years.
The Lebanese Army announced in July the dismantling of a major Captagon pill manufacturing plant in Yammouneh (Bekaa), calling it "one of the largest factories seized to date."
At the end of August, the Internal Security Forces (ISF), in cooperation with Qatari authorities, arrested a Brazilian national at Beirut International Airport who had attempted to smuggle cocaine by swallowing 133 capsules with a total weight of 1.8 kg.
On September 2, Interior Minister Ahmad Hajjar announced the seizure at the port of Tripoli, North Lebanon, of "the largest quantity of cocaine ever smuggled" into the country from Brazil.
Humanitarian convoy reaches Rmeish, Ain Ibl, Dibil despite obstacles
