Anti-Drug Bureau Seizes Large Quantity of Captagon in Baalbek, Detains Four Syrians

The Anti-Drug Bureau confiscated on Thursday a large quantity of captagon pills and detained four Syrians over drug trafficking charges, the state-run National News Agency reported.

According to a statement released by the Internal Security Forces General-Directorate, the Bekaa anti-drug bureau patrol, and after a thorough investigation, found the large quantity of captagon pills in a quarry in the town of Bajaj in north of Baalbek.

The news agency reported that the four Syrians were detained over charges of drugs possession and attempts to smuggle the quantity of captagon to an Arab country.

The ISF communique identified the arrested Syrians as Z.A., 44, A.B., 29, A.B., 31, and A.M., 18.

The NNA, meanwhile, said the four men are Ahmed Abdulsattar al-Bir, Imad Mohammed Yasser al-Bir, Ibrahim Hussein Mohammed, Ziad Jawdat al-Azzam.

The four suspects were transferred to the Beirut headquarters for further investigations.

The forces confiscated on site a huge metallic machine that weights around 10 tons, and inside it, they found around 5 million captagon pills that were prepared to be transferred to an Arab country. These pills were placed inside steel tires, to prevent their detection by scanners on border crossings.

Another 400,000 pill were also found on site and these were placed inside transparent plastic bags.

It should be noted that one captagon pill is valued between 10 and 20 USD.

"The competent court is currently investigating Thursday's events," the statement said.

Meanwhile, military police also handed over to the anti-drug bureau in the Bekaa seven kilograms of Hashish confiscated from the residence of Rabih A. in al-Sharawneh neighborhood in the Bekaa city of Baalbek.

On Wednesday, the army confiscated a quantity of narcotics from the residence of A. Gh. in the town of Jabbouleh in northern Bekaa.

Security forces also thwarted an attempt to smuggle 30,000 captagon pills through Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport and bound for an Arab country.