BEIRUT — Lebanese authorities on Sunday
arrested a
Saudi man at
Beirut airport who attempted to smuggle 18.3kg of the
illegal stimulant captagon out of the country, the interior ministry said.
اضافة اعلان
Lebanon’s interior ministry said in a statement that
the drugs were destined for Kuwait.
The ministry added that the man is a Saudi citizen
and a
Kuwait resident who holds documents saying he works in “security” there.
Under its normal practice, it did not name the
suspect.
Trade in captagon in the Middle East grew
exponentially in 2021 to top $5 billion, posing an increasing health and
security risk to the region, a report by the New Lines Institute said in April.
Syria is the main producer of the amphetamine-type
drug, and Saudi Arabia the main consumer.
A security official at the airport told AFP the man
had placed an estimated 110,000 captagon pills inside bags that were “stitched
in clothing.”
Security forces have intensified efforts to thwart
smuggling operations after Riyadh suspended fruit and vegetable imports from
Lebanon in April last year. It said shipments were used for drug smuggling and
accused Beirut of inaction.
Lebanese authorities have arrested several captagon
smugglers over the years, most notably a Saudi prince in 2015 who, along with
four Saudi accomplices, tried to smuggle about 2 tonnes of pills on a private
plane headed to the kingdom from Beirut.
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