Beirut Port: A Lane for Drug Trafficking?

A Saudi custom officer opens imported pomegranates, as customs foiled a attempt to smuggle millions of Captagon pills, which came from Lebanon, at Jeddah Islamic Port on April 23, 2021. (SPA)

On the 23rd of April, Saudi Arabia declared that it has seized large amounts of drugs in a vegetable shipment from Lebanon and consequently, imposed a ban on Lebanese agricultural products. Similarly, Greek authorities announced seizing four tons of cannabis worth €33 million, hidden in dessert-making machinery at Piraeus that was en route from Lebanon to Slovakia. More recently, Lebanese custom services detained ‘a whole drug-making factory’ being shipped from abroad to Lebanon. The disturbing part about all of this is that they seem to be taking place through the Beirut Port.

It is important to note that there are scanners at checkpoints in Masnaa area bordering Syria, and they are operational. However, those at the Beirut Port were heavily damaged. New ones reached Lebanon but their installation remains to be seen.

Now that Lebanon is in a financial and political impasse, it has become difficult for the security services to stop most types of illegal trade. The country is taking a new step towards the abyss, confirming to the Lebanese and other parties in the world the failure of the Lebanese government, which is manipulated by gangs taking the country to a dead end. As for Saudi Arabia’s decision to stop importing agricultural production from Lebanon, it is a form of economic and political pressure on the Lebanese government, to exclude the Kingdom's ideological opponent within the country, and halt its interference in politics.

Communication and Public Relations Department