Lebanon security forces seize 450,000 Captagon pills headed to Gulf

Lebanese police carried out a raid earlier this month and seized an estimated 450,000 pills of Captagon headed for the Gulf, the Internal Security Forces (ISF) announced on Tuesday.

The ISF said that its forces raided a warehouse near the Beirut International Airport following a tip-off that a shipment was being prepared to be sent to the Democratic Republic of Congo and then to an unnamed Gulf country.

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The Captagon pills were stuffed inside electric motors at the company's warehouse that exports and imports products to and from Lebanon. The company was not named.

The highly addictive amphetamine has been mostly produced in Syria and Lebanon and shipped to the Gulf. Lebanese authorities have stepped up their efforts to crack down on the illicit production and export of the narcotic, specifically to the Gulf.

Saudi Arabia ordered a ban on importing fruits and vegetables from Lebanon in 2021 due to the persistent smuggling of Captagon into the Kingdom. At the time, Saudi security forces foiled a plot to smuggle over five million pills of Captagon stuffed inside pomegranates shipped from Lebanon.

Read more: Saudi authorities foil attempt to smuggle over 2 mln captagon pills