Lebanese Customs recently seized 20 kilograms of cocaine at Beirut-Rafik Hariri International Airport as they were being transported by an inbound passenger arriving from South America.
The individual attempting to smuggle the narcotics was arrested a few days ago and handed over, along with the seized drugs, to the Anti-Narcotics Office of the Internal Security Forces’ judicial police.
Curiously, the customs member responsible for seizing the cocaine was later summoned for investigation, as were two of his colleagues, one of whom was nowhere to be found at the time of his summoning.
Notably, the detained traveler reportedly admitted that this was not the first time in which he brings in drugs to Lebanon, revealing that he had successfully smuggled a previous batch, with help from a person at the airport he said he didn’t know.
Security surveillance footage revealed that at the time of the successful smuggling operation, the two summoned customs personnel had approached the bag before backing away after the third member, whose location remains unknown, showed up.
The summoned personnel said they only wanted to search the bag after receiving an alert about it but decided to leave it to their colleague as a favor, without knowing that it contained drugs. The investigation into the incident is ongoing.
