Lebanese-Saudi co-operation leads to $15m drugs bust, says Interior Minister

Ahmed Hajjar says operations to dismantle narcotics networks will go on

Lebanese Interior Minister Ahmed Hajjar says there are other operations to dismantle networks in co-operation with Saudi Arabia. EPA

Lebanese Interior Minister Ahmed Hajjar said that close co-operation with Saudi Arabia has dismantled drug smuggling networks, and that information received from the kingdom led to the confiscation of drugs worth $15 million.

“Information we received from Saudi Arabia led to the capture of a drug shipment, and there are other operations to dismantle networks in co-operation with Saudi Arabia,” Mr Hajjar told Saudi news network Al Arabiya.

On Tuesday, Mr Hajjar said that his country's authorities seized a ship carrying 125kg of cocaine, the largest quantity of the drug yet smuggled from Brazil to Lebanon. This operation was made possible by intelligence provided by the Saudi Ministry of Interior, he said.

The cocaine arrived at the port of Tripoli in northern Lebanon and was packaged in containers intended for oil.

He said that “two individuals have been arrested in this operation, while other individuals involved are being pursued, and investigations are continuing.”

Cocaine was discovered in the containers. EPA

At the same time, Brig Gen Talal bin Shalhoub, security spokesman for the Saudi Ministry of Interior, said that monitoring of criminal networks involved in drug smuggling, based on information from the Saudi Ministry of Interior, and presented by the General Directorate of Narcotics Control to its counterpart agency in Lebanon, resulted in the Lebanese authorities thwarting an attempt to smuggle the cocaine haul.

Last month, the Iraqi Interior Ministry revealed that security and intelligence co-operation between Baghdad and Beirut led to the dismantling of one of the biggest Captagon production centres in the Middle East.

In mid-July, Lebanon's army announced the discovery of a Captagon factory in Yammouneh, about 25km from the city of Baalbek, after finding a 300 metre tunnel used to deliver and store materials for the lab.

It was “one of the largest labs” to be raided, the military said at the time. The army added that it seized about 10 tonnes of equipment and machinery and destroyed a “large quantity of Captagon pills, crystal meth and various narcotics”.