Lebanon intensifies efforts to thwart drug smuggling

BEIRUT -- Lebanese security forces recently thwarted an attempt to smuggle more than 5.4 million Captagon pills through the port of Beirut -- one of a string of huge drug-smuggling operations that have been disrupted in recent months.

The 5,415,000 pills were found during a raid on a warehouse in the Ghazieh region of southern Lebanon, hidden in construction materials, the interior ministry revealed November 1.

They were destined for Sudan by way of Ivory Coast, the ministry said, although it is unclear whether Sudan was their final destination.

In recent months, security forces have thwarted a number of huge drug-smuggling operations, with the illicit narcotics destined for Gulf markets, and recently intensified their efforts to break up smuggling networks.

In January, they thwarted the smuggling of a Captagon shipment hidden in more than 430 crates of tea, which was destined for Saudi Arabia, via Togo.

In December 2021, Lebanese customs seized nine million Captagon pills hidden in a shipment of oranges destined for Kuwait at the port of Beirut.

A number of people were arrested during the Ghazieh raid, Minister of Interior and Municipalities Judge Bassam Mawlawi told Al-Mashareq, noting that "the investigations and arrests are still ongoing".

Mawlawi said the ministry is instructing all security agencies to intensify security and investigative efforts and monitoring as well as checks and inspections at border crossings and across the whole of Lebanon to combat drug smuggling.

"The ministry is co-ordinating between all agencies and following up on all details in order to uncover more drug transport and smuggling operations and protect Lebanon and its reputation," he said.

These enhanced security operations also protect "brotherly and friendly countries from the harms of drug smuggling", he said.

Smugglers use African cities

The most recent smuggling operation "is very similar to previously uncovered operations and would have been attempted through the Beirut port or Beirut international airport", political analyst George Chahine told Al-Mashareq.

The network is one of several that use various African cities as a staging point in order to frustrate investigations and efforts by international bodies to pursue drug-smuggling operations, he said.

The cargo seized in the most recent raid would have gone to Abidjan in Ivory Coast and from there to Sudan, where it would have been divided up and distributed to Egypt and the Gulf states, he said.

This is a strategy used by the major drug smuggling networks, he said.

Security forces, including the army, army intelligence, and the Lebanese Internal Security Forces' Information Branch, have a trove of information on potential networks that engage in drug and human trafficking, Chahine said.

These are large networks that finance themselves, he said, and most of them are stationed at points along the Lebanese-Syrian border and inside Syria, making use of illegal crossings between the two countries.

According to Chahine, there is co-operation between Syrian and Lebanese networks, and they have individuals who receive the drugs in the Gulf and Africa.

He said the network operating in Ghazieh "carried out similar operations six months ago, and a major operation in 2020, according to preliminary investigations", noting that the network is active among Africa, the Gulf and Lebanon.

Drug smuggling has cost the Lebanese economy millions of dollars, he said.

"This has prompted the security services and the Lebanese Chambers of Commerce and Industry to express their willingness to co-operate in equipping the port and airport with scanners," he said.

While this would help the security services uncover smuggling networks, he added, "the installation of this equipment has not been completed".

Captagon in Hizbullah strongholds

Captagon is "a synthetic drug, not an agricultural drug, and its factories are spread in the Bekaa Valley, specifically in areas that support Hizbullah and areas on the border with Syria", political writer George Akouri told Al-Mashareq.

"Everyone knows that the smuggling and exchange of Captagon across the Lebanese-Syrian border are carried out under Hizbullah's supervision, because it has predominant control over the border and its crossings," he said.

"Hizbullah is directly involved in the manufacture and smuggling of Captagon and providing of cover to drug traffickers, such that we see notorious drug traffickers like Noah Zuaiter in the front rows at all Hizbullah festivals," he said.

He said the consequences of smuggling Captagon abroad are "very harmful to Lebanon, because it not only harms its image but also its relations with friendly countries, as the main target of the drugs are the Gulf states".

Lebanon paid a heavy price as a result of the Gulf states closing their doors to the import of its agricultural products, Akouri said, after finding shipments being used for drug smuggling.

This negatively impacted Lebanon's economy and caused great harm to farmers whose products were blocked from export, he added.