Kuwait says it has thwarted an attempt to smuggle half a million Captagon pills from Lebanon, hidden in bags of onions.
The shipment of 85kg of the amphetamines was sent to Kuwait by sea, authorities said. The intended recipient, a citizen of a Gulf country, was arrested in an ambush.
The suspected sender was arrested in Lebanon, where the army has been shutting down Captagon labs in an attempt to stem drug trafficking to Syria and the Gulf.
Lebanon's internal security forces said the drugs had been “professionally hidden”. Kuwait's Interior Ministry said they arrived registered as food parcels.
The two countries rarely carry out joint police operations, with Lebanon long viewed with scepticism in the Gulf due to the influence of Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Beirut has been working to repair those ties. In January, Lebanese police shut down a Captagon lab after a tip-off from Saudi Arabia. The UAE lifted a travel ban last May.
Lebanon has also worked with neighbouring Syria to stem the Captagon trade. Officials said a Syrian drugs unit was also involved in the raid in Kuwait. They described the two suspects as “the mastermind and his accomplice”.
A mix of amphetamines, Captagon is one of the most popular recreational drugs across the Middle East and was produced on a mass scale during Syria's civil war, often smuggled across the Lebanese border.
Hezbollah, and its allies in the former Bashar Al Assad regime in Syria, have long been suspected of using the Captagon trade as a way of raising funds.
