Syrians, Lebanese Held over Bid to Smuggle Captagon via Beirut Port
Several Syrian and Lebanese nationals have been arrested in connection with the attempt on Monday to smuggle a large quantity of Captagon pills to a Gulf state via the Beirut Port, the Directorate General of Internal Security Forces announced on Tuesday.
"On August 6, 2013, the Central Anti-Drug Bureau obtained information about an attempt to smuggle a quantity of narcotics from Syria to an Arab country via the Beirut Port through using a giant air-conditioning machine,” the ISF said in a statement.
“Following a surveillance operation, the truck carrying the machine was detected as it tried to park in the Amchit area, north of Beirut, where it was seized,” the ISF added.
As a result of “intensive investigations,” the owner of the machine was identified, it said.
The ISF clarified that the owner, a Syrian national, had tasked his friend, another Syrian citizen, to transport the machine to Lebanon and that the latter had delivered it to two Lebanese men in Baalbek after managing to smuggle it through an illegal border crossing.
The Syrian man then asked the Lebanese duo to send the machine to Beirut with the aim of shipping it to an Arab country, the statement said.
Following the arrest of one of the Lebanese men in addition to the truck's Syrian driver and another Lebanese citizen who had forged the machine's certificate of origin, the Central Anti-Drug Bureau in cooperation with the anti-drug unit of the Lebanese Customs dismantled the aforementioned machine and found around five million Captagon pills inside it, the ISF added.
“The pills were packed in 4,614 nylon bags and put in a creative manner inside 11 metallic drawers in the bottom of the air-conditioning machine,” the ISF said, adding that the quantity weighs around 841 kilograms and is worth 50 to 100 million dollars.
“The investigation is ongoing under the supervision of the relevant judicial authorities, while the search is underway to arrest the rest of the perpetrators,” the ISF added.
On Monday, state-run National News Agency said the seized pills were supposed to be smuggled to a Gulf country.
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