Syrian Arms Smuggler Arrested at Beirut Airport
Security authorities at Rafik Hariri International Airport have arrested a Syrian national accused of smuggling weapons, Voice of Lebanon radio station (93.3) reported Monday.
VDL said Mohammed Shaker Toufiq was arrested in the early hours of Monday.
The news came two days after the General Security Department confirmed the arrest of another Syrian citizen on charges of arms smuggling.
In a communiqué issued late Saturday, the department’s general directorate dismissed a report by Future TV that Amer Omar Adib was arrested “without any justification.”
The General Security Department arrested Adib on charges of smuggling arms between Syria and Lebanon and was referred to the judiciary after he admitted to the charges, the communiqué said.
A security source dismissed to An Nahar daily on Monday what he called the “misleading” campaign against General Security.
He said Adib is part of a ring that extorts money from Syrian expatriates in a Gulf country and buys light weapons and ammunition from the Lebanese black market.
The arms are later transported to a Lebanese-Syrian border area in the eastern Bekaa Valley and handed to smugglers who would transfer them to areas witnessing security incidents in Syria.
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