Lebanon’s interior minister in the interim government, Bassam Mawlawi, announced on Saturday the disruption of an operation to smuggle drugs into the Gulf state via Sudan.
Mollawi said in a Twitter post that “a large number of Captagon tablets, more than one million tablets, were seized by Lebanese security forces in the port of Beirut.”
He added that this amount “was hidden inside a shipment of grapes, the first destination of which was the Republic of the Sudan and then the State of Kuwait.”
He emphasized that an investigation is ongoing to find out more about this party, and addressed the drug dealers with the words: “Dealers of death … you are on the alert.”
According to a report published last April, the trade in Captagon narcotic pills in the Middle East increased significantly during 2021 and exceeded $5 billion, posing increased health and safety risks in the region.
A report published by the New Lines Institute points to the involvement of family members of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, senior members of his regime and the Lebanese Hezbollah in the manufacture and smuggling of Captagon.
A report published by Washington-based research institute New Lines, a copy of which was provided to AFP, paints a disturbing picture of the impact of the Captagon boom on the region.
A report written by researchers Caroline Rose and Alexander Soderholm says that the Captagon trade has become a “fast-growing illegal economy in the Middle East and the Mediterranean region.”
Based on the calculation of the cost of large seizures only, “the potential retail value in 2021 is estimated at more than $5.7 billion.”
That figure represents a significant jump from nearly $3.5 billion in 2020, given that it only reflects the value of the retail price of grain seized last year, which the report says is more than 420 million grains.
A large number of more than a million Captagon tablets seized by Lebanese security forces at the port of Beirut were hidden inside a shipment of grapes, the first destination of which was the Republic of the Sudan and then the State of Kuwait.
The investigation is ongoing. #merchants of death #you_the_lookout
— Bassam Mawlawi (@MawlawiBassam) September 17, 2022
