Lebanese security forces have seized a new Captagon shipment prepared to be smuggled to Saudi Arabia, the Internal Security Forces (ISF) said on Tuesday.
On June 21st, the anti-narcotics bureau of the ISF‘s judicial police unit received information about a group of people preparing to smuggle Captagon pills to Saudi Arabia inside sterilization machines.
Later, the machines were seized and searched and found to contain 17.4 kg of professionally concealed narcotic pills, nearly 100,000 of them, according to the ISF.
The anti-narcotics bureau was able to identify the culprits, “A.N.” (33, Lebanese) and “M.N.” (25, Lebanese), arresting them on June 22nd.
A day later, their partner in the operation, “A.G.” (39, Syrian), was arrested.
إحباط عملية تهريب كمية كبيرة من حبوب الكبتاغون الى المملكة العربية السعودية مخبّأة بطريقة احترافية من قبل مكتب مكافحة المخدرات#قوى_الامن https://t.co/FGKnrl6CCl pic.twitter.com/4MDEstkBGf
— قوى الامن الداخلي (@LebISF) June 29, 2021
The detainees confessed to having planned for and prepared an operation to smuggle the captagon to Saudi Arabia. The investigation into the case is ongoing under the supervision of the competent judicial authority.
Notably, this announcement comes a day after the Saudi authorities seized a large shipment of Captagon pills coming from Lebanon, containing more than 14 million pills.
Lebanese security forces have been intensifying their efforts against similar drug smuggling operations since Saudi Arabia decided to ban fruit and vegetable imports from Lebanon back in April, which is a major hit on the already collapsing Lebanese economy.
