'Captagon King' sentenced to 7 years hard labour in Lebanon

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  Lebanon's Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, left, at a press conference in Beirut that revealed an attempt had been foiled to smuggle a large quantity of Captagon pills in a shipment of tea. AFP

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  Lebanese police swooped and seized the boxes of tea containing amphetamines after the smugglers sailed from Beirut’s port. AP

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  A member of Lebanon's security forces shows how the drugs were hidden deep within what looked like legitimate cargo. EPA

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  The amphetamines were hidden in 434 boxes mixed with seven tons of tea for export. AP

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  Mr Mawlawi said the drugs were being sent to Togo in Africa, to then be shipped to the Gulf. AFP

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  Some of the tea mixed with Captagon pills. Previous consignments have been hidden in fake oranges and lemons, car tyres and even live sheep. AFP

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  Last year, Saudi Arabia suspended fruit and vegetable imports from Lebanon after more than five million Captagon pills concealed in fruit were confiscated. EPA

A Lebanese court handed a man known as the “Captagon King” a seven-year sentence with hard labour on Thursday for producing and trafficking the illegal drug, a judicial source told AFP.

This is the first time a major drug baron has been convicted in a Captagon case in Lebanon.

Prosecutors accused Lebanese-Syrian Hassan Dekko, who has high-level political connections in both countries, of once running an empire out of a Lebanese border village in the Bekaa region.

But Lebanese security forces arrested him in April last year after several major Captagon hauls.

“Dekko was handed seven years of hard labour and convicted of manufacturing Captagon pills, and smuggling them abroad,” said the judicial source.

The Beirut court that issued the verdict is not taking part in a nationwide judges' strike that has paralysed the judiciary since August.

Most of global Captagon production originates in Syria, spurring a $10 billion industry, according to estimates drawn from official data by AFP, making the drug the country's largest export by far.

In court documents obtained by AFP, Dekko denied any involvement in drug trafficking, claiming he worked with the Syrian military.

But Lebanese security sources claim that some of the businesses he owns, including a pesticide factory in Jordan, a car dealership in Syria and a fleet of tanker lorries, are common covers for drug lords.

The court found that Dekko was in contact with drug smugglers in Syria and that he had asked one of the defendants in the same case to purchase materials used to produce Captagon pills.

Dekko previously worked with police intelligence in Lebanon, the court found, leaking information about some Captagon shipments smuggled abroad.

But the investigation showed he purposefully failed to inform them about other shipments, the source said.

Twenty-five others, including three of Dekko's brothers, were sentenced to hard labour for life in absentia.

Lebanese authorities have ramped up efforts to counter Captagon production and trafficking after backlash from some Gulf nations, key markets for shipments of the amphetamine-type narcotic.

Saudi Arabia is the largest market for Captagon, a versatile drug popular among the partying elite but also used for weight loss and by students working several jobs.