Lebanon seizes 2 tons of drugs aboard Saudi-bound jet

BEIRUT: Lebanese authorities detained five Saudi citizens at Beirut International Airport on Monday after finding two tons of drugs aboard a private jet bound for the Gulf kingdom, security sources and the National News Agency said.
The plane, scheduled to fly to Hail in northern Saudi Arabia, was carrying 40 bags of Captagon amphetamine pills and some cocaine.
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.
The security source said the drugs had been packed into cases that were waiting to be loaded onto a private plane.
Security services were questioning the suspects, the sources said, without elaborating.
Lebanon’s National News Agency described it as the biggest smuggling operation ever discovered at the Beirut airport .
“The smuggling operation is the largest one that has been foiled through the Beirut International Airport,” the source said on condition of anonymity.
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.