BEIRUT (Dispatches) –
Lebanese authorities have arrested a Saudi man at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport carrying over 18kg of the amphetamine drug, Al-Manar TV reported.
The channel said the Saudi man is a security officer named Adel al-Shammari who was arrested while trying to smuggle over 18kg of captagon to Kuwait.
Social media users shared photos of the officer’s passport.
Lebanon’s Interior Ministry, in a statement issued on behalf of caretaker minister Bassam Mawlawi, announced that the Saudi man is a resident of Kuwait and holds documents showing he is a security official from Saudi Arabia.
It added that he was carrying 18.3 kilograms of the amphetamine-like captagon pills destined for Kuwait.
The statement noted that the operation “proved yet again that Lebanese security forces are on the constant lookout to uncover and stop illicit drug trafficking.”
“Minister Mawlawi affirms that efforts are underway to protect our Arab societies from all kinds of harm, while pointing out that Lebanon will not be a corridor or platform for the export of evil or illicit drugs,” the statement added.
A security official at Beirut airport told AFP the man had placed an estimated 110,000 captagon pills inside bags that were “stitched in clothing.”
Initial investigations suggest that Shammari was linked to a Lebanese drug trafficking network, whose ringleader resides in Matn district, east of the Lebanese capital Beirut, and is currently at large.
According to the Arabic-language Lebanon Debate news website, the Saudi man was an active member of a Lebanese-Kuwaiti-Saudi drug trafficking network.
The report added that Lebanese security officials are investigating to find out whether Shammari has already smuggled captagon out of the country.
Captagon is one of the most commonly used drugs in the war in Syria, where foreign-backed terrorists say it helps them stay awake for days and numbs their senses, giving them stamina for long battles and allowing them to kill mercilessly.