Lebanon's police on Wednesday (June 19th) said they arrested a "prominent" drug trafficking baron suspected of smuggling large shipments of the amphetamine-like drug captagon to at least six countries, AFP reported.
The 31-year-old suspect "had been professionally smuggling captagon to Arab countries for around six years", the Internal Security Forces said, without naming the man.
He confessed to carrying out "12 smuggling operations to Egypt, Qatar, Yemen, the UAE, Sudan and Saudi Arabia", it said in a statement.
He was "one of the most prominent of those involved" in smuggling captagon from Lebanon to the Gulf, the statement said.
He was arrested in the Bekaa Valley in a bust co-ordinated with Saudi Arabia's Directorate of Narcotics Control, it said.
Four other members of the same smuggling network -- two Lebanese and two Syrians -- were also arrested, according to the statement.
Lebanon has previously stopped several shipments of the drug to Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia.
In May, it arrested a Saudi man at Beirut airport carrying about 10 kilogrammes of the drug.
In April, it seized more than 800,000 pills worth around $12 million in a bust co-ordinated with Saudi authorities.
