On Tuesday, the Lebanese authorities announced that they had thwarted a new smuggling of the narcotic Captagon pills to Saudi Arabia.

The General Directorate of the Internal Security Forces said in a statement, “The Narcotics Control Office arrested, last week, a group that was preparing for the operation to smuggle Captagon pills to Saudi Arabia.”

According to the statement, the quantity of Captagon pills seized from the group was 17.4 kg (about 100,000 pills).

He explained that the pills were “professionally hidden inside machines sterilizing medical instruments.”

The statement added, “After determining the identities of those involved, 3 people (two Lebanese and a Syrian) were arrested in different Lebanese regions.”

He continued, “By interrogating the detainees, they confessed to preparing and preparing for the operation to smuggle the quantity of Captagon into Saudi Arabia.”

On June 26, the Saudi authorities announced that they had thwarted a smuggling operation of more than 14 million narcotic tablets hidden inside a shipment of iron plates coming from Lebanon, at a time when Beirut considered these attempts “abusing” the relationship with Riyadh, according to a statement by the Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs in the caretaker government. Zina Aker.

And about two months before that, Saudi Arabia decided to ban the entry of Lebanese vegetables and fruits from entering the Kingdom or passing through its territory to a third country, under the pretext of using its consignments to smuggle drugs.

The Saudi decision came at the time, following the seizure of large quantities of narcotic pills and hashish in a shipment of pomegranate coming from Lebanon.

At the time, Lebanese President Michel Aoun asked the security services to “be tough in combating smuggling operations and those behind them.”

The Saudi move exacerbated the crises in Lebanon, which is witnessing an unprecedented scarcity of foreign exchange; This led to a significant drop in the price of the lira against the dollar over the past period.