Youssef Diab wrote in “Kuwait News”:
Investigations into the case of seizing large quantities of Captagon in the port of Beirut intended to be smuggled into Kuwait are at the fore of the judicial and security authorities in Lebanon, and are still ongoing amid the availability of new information regarding network codes. A prominent judicial source revealed to “Al-Anbaa” that there is “continued coordination with the Kuwaiti authorities in this regard, regarding the exchange of information regarding the persons who were to receive the shipment.”
While the source reserved the number of detainees in Lebanon in this case, he explained that “reports of search and investigation were issued once morest a large number of suspects, and the security services are tracking one of the big heads in this process, because his arrest reveals important information.”
Preliminary investigations indicated that these shipments were behind networks that were protected from influential parties, as a security source explained to Al-Anbaa that “the machine that makes lemons and artificial pomegranates, in which Captagon is packed, was brought by the network from Ukraine, and that operating it requires a team of more than fifty people who exchange roles. Between manufacturing, packaging and clarification,” noting that “Captagon factories and packaging operations take place inside the Syrian territory, adjacent to the eastern borders of Lebanon, which makes it easier for these networks to ship and bring their goods into Lebanon through illegal crossings.” The security source pointed out that “there is an insistence on smuggling these drugs through Beirut port or Rafic Hariri International Airport to the Arab Gulf states, with the aim of showing Lebanon a drug store and a fertile ground for traders and smugglers, and strengthening this country’s isolation from the world, especially from the Gulf countries that export poisons.” Al-Bayda has a direct target for the gangs and those who protect it.”
