Lebanese soldiers pose in front of their vehicle in Kfar Shuba, southern Lebanon, on Aug. 26, 2023. (Illustrative photo by Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient Today)
Lebanese Army intelligence services have arrested five people suspected of drug trafficking during a raid in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in North Lebanon, specifically in the neighborhoods of Jahoula and Souk, our correspondent in the region reports. A sixth suspect managed to escape, and efforts are ongoing to locate him.
The Nahr al-Bared camp was completely destroyed by the Lebanese Army in 2007 following violence between the Lebanese Army and the Palestinian Fatah al-Islam faction, which lasted a month and led to a mass displacement of residents. Partial reconstruction of the camp was completed in 2018.
The issue of drug trafficking in Palestinian camps resurfaced at the end of October, when a woman was found murdered in a drug den inside the Shatila camp in Beirut's southern suburbs. Several suspects were then handed over to Lebanese authorities by the Palestinian National Security Forces. On Nov. 2, a drug dealer from the Rashidieh camp in South Lebanon handed over a large quantity of narcotics and "repented."
These operations come as Lebanese authorities, since early August and alongside the process of disarming Hezbollah, are also working to disarm armed groups inside the Palestinian camps, where militias from various factions are responsible for security.
