BEIRUT, Apr 15 (NNN-NNA) – Lebanese Internal Security Forces, yesterday thwarted a smuggling attempt of about 10 million Captagon pills from Lebanon to Saudi Arabia, through Senegal, said Lebanese caretaker Interior Minister, Bassam Mawlawi.
“The Information Division of the Internal Security Forces thwarted the smuggling operation of the pills, stuffed in a shipment of rubber carbon,” Mawlawi said on his Twitter account.
He added that, the information division identifies the members of the network and the warehouse of the pills, in Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli.
In recent months, Lebanese security forces launched dozens of operations, to monitor coastal and land borders with Syria, to identify smuggling routes and reduce such activities.
Previous incidents prompted Saudi Arabia to suspend shipments of Lebanese fruit and vegetables entering the kingdom, or transiting through its territory, after Saudi authorities thwarted an attempt to smuggle more than five million Captagon pills from Lebanon.
Captagon, the trademark name for the synthetic stimulant fenethylline, was first produced in the 1960s, to treat hyperactivity, narcolepsy and depression, but was banned in most countries in the 1980s, as too addictive.
The drug remains hugely popular in the Middle East, and is cheap and simple to make.– NNN-NNA
