Saudi Arabia’s ban of all fruits and vegetables from Lebanon came into effect on Sunday after officials claimed shipments were being abused to smuggle drugs into the Kingdom.
It came after Saudi Arabia‘s massive drug bust of millions of Captagon pills stashed in crates of pomegranates that were shipped from Lebanon.
But the produce ban was a result of years of drug busts; the latest being just one of many thwarted smuggling attempts from Lebanon over the years.
In a tweet, Saudi Arabia‘s Ambassador to Lebanon, Waleed Bukhari, said that the amount of thwarted narcotics were enough to “drown the entire Arab world with drugs and psychotropic substances, not just Saudi Arabia.”
He revealed that Saudi authorities have seized over the past six years more than 600 million narcotic pills and hundreds of kilograms of hashish coming from Lebanon.
From the smuggling of the subsidies to the smuggling of narcotics, Lebanese authorities don’t seem to have the borders properly monitored.
The act of drug traffickers has brought on a new blow to the collapsing economy. The banning by Saudi Arabia will cost local farmers a large portion of their livelihood as they heavily rely on exports.
According to Lebanon’s caretaker Agriculture Minister Abbas Mortada, the export of fruits and vegetables to Saudi Arabia was worth $24 million/year.
The situation can get worse if other Arab Gulf countries, which expressed support for Saudi Arabia‘s decision, follow suit.
