Nearly 2 million captagon pills seized in Bekaa

BEIRUT — The Internal Security Forces (ISF) said Thursday they had carried out a major anti-narcotics operation that led, on April 24, to the seizure of nearly two million captagon pills from a van.

In a statement, the ISF said it had received information about a suspicious vehicle in the Baalbek area in the northern Bekaa. A patrol was dispatched, accompanied by officers from the anti-narcotics bureau in Zahle (Bekaa's capital) and a unit of the judicial police. Inside the vehicle, authorities found 17 large barrels containing 329 kilograms of captagon pills, equivalent to around 1.81 million pills. Captagon is a locally produced synthetic stimulant known for its low production cost.

Prior to this operation, the ISF said it had also received information about a captagon manufacturing machine and raw materials hidden in a cave in a remote area of the northern Bekaa. The site was searched, leading to the seizure of 15 kilograms of captagon (around 85,000 pills), 700 kilograms of the chemical component used to produce the drug, and a manufacturing machine.

The ISF said the investigation is ongoing ''to arrest all those involved,'' without specifying whether any arrests have been made.