A warehouse storing large quantities of drugs in southern Lebanon was raided overnight by caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hasan.
The facility, located in the village of Toul, Nabatieh, contained a variety of drugs whose prices went up after the partial subsidy lifting, all of which had been bought and stored when the Central Bank of Lebanon was still subsidizing drugs at the official exchange rate of LBP 1,500/$1.
The raid also uncovered drugs used in the treatment of incurable and chronic illnesses.
Caretaker Minister Hasan revealed during the operation that two monopolizers had been detained, emphasizing that all perpetrators must be detained and their institutions opened to sell medicine to the public.
Hasan expressed regret for what he described as “a criminal mafia mind that controls monopolists and opportunists,” stressing that the drugs that are being found hidden in warehouses are “a valuable catch” and “an echoing scandal.”
Hours prior to this one, the official had conducted raids on warehouses in Jadra and Aaqbiyeh.
Some of the warehouses, Hasan noted, lacked the optimal conditions for the preservation of the drugs’ effectiveness.
All drugs found in the raided warehouses have been confiscated to be redistributed, based on a judicial notice.