Beirut // Beirut airport authorities have foiled one of the country’s largest drug smuggling attempts, seizing two tons of amphetamine Captagon pills before they were loaded onto the private plane of a Saudi prince, a Lebanese official said on Monday.
Saudi prince Abdel Mohsen Bin Walid Bin Abdulaziz and four others were detained by airport security while allegedly “attempting to smuggle about two tons of Captagon pills and some cocaine”, a security source said.
“The smuggling operation is the largest one that has been foiled through the Beirut international airport,” the source said on condition of anonymity.
Captagon is the brand name for the amphetamine phenethylline, a synthetic stimulant. The banned drug is consumed mainly in the Middle East and has reportedly been widely used by fighters in Syria. Captagon manufacturing thrives in Lebanon and war-torn Syria, which have become a gateway for the drug to the Middle East.
The security source said the drugs had been packed into cases that were waiting to be loaded onto a private plane that was headed to Saudi Arabia.
The five Saudi citizens were still in the airport and would be questioned by Lebanon’s customs authority, the source added.
In April 2014, security forces foiled an attempt to smuggle 15 million capsules of Captagon hidden in shipping containers full of corn from Beirut’s port.
Lebanon’s state news agency also reported Monday’s drug bust, saying the private plane was to head to Riyadh and was carrying 40 suitcases full of Captagon.
The UN Office of Drugs and Crime said in a 2014 report that the amphetamine market is on the rise in the Middle East, with busts mostly in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria accounting for more than 55 per cent of amphetamines seized worldwide.
* Associated Press and Agence France-Presse
