Lebanon Detains Italian Over Cocaine Smuggling

Lebanon has detained an Italian who was part of a group smuggling cocaine hidden in alcohol bottles through international airports and into the Middle Eastern country, security forces said Monday.

Beirut, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Jun, 2018 ) :Lebanon has detained an Italian who was part of a group smuggling cocaine hidden in alcohol bottles through international airports and into the middle Eastern country, security forces said Monday.

The unnamed Italian national, who was arrested in May on arrival from Paraguay, was one of eight foreigners involved in the trafficking operation, the forces said in a statement.

Authorities also detained two Lebanese nationals, one last month and one in April, for selling and transporting the drugs.

The group of four Italians, two Brazilians, an Argentinian and a German "specialised in smuggling large quantities of cocaine into Lebanon", the statement said.

The authorities are still looking for the rest of the group.

The cocaine was "mixed with liquids... and put in alcohol bottles in duty free bags from a foreign airport", it said, passing through security "at many international airports" before landing in Lebanon.

The smugglers then "rented rooms in many hotels across the country in which they stayed for a short period during which they separated the cocaine from the liquids".

The aim was to "sell it to Lebanese drug dealers in exchange for hundreds of thousands of Dollars", it said.

The Italian admitted to carrying out 20 drug trafficking missions to Lebanon, it said.

Lebanon has been fighting to stem cannabis and opium production over the past decades, after they flourished during the country's civil war from 1975 to 1990.

The authorities regularly announce seizures of drugs coming into or intended to leave the country.

In 2015, Lebanon charged a Saudi prince and nine others with drug trafficking, after they were caught trying to smuggle two tonnes of Captagon capsules and cocaine on a private plane out of Beirut in a record drug bust.