1 million Captagon pills were seized en route to Sudan and Kuwait

Lebanon announced Saturday that more than 1 million pills of captagon anaesthetic had been seized hidden inside a grape shipment en route to Sudan and then Kuwait.

Lebanon’s Interior Minister Bassam Molloy said on Twitter that “Lebanese security services seized a large quantity of captagon beans over 1 million pills, in the port of Beirut.”

He explained that the pills were “hidden inside a shipment of grapes, first destined by the Republic of the Sudan, and subsequently the State of Kuwait”, adding that the investigation into the incident was ongoing.

Drug smuggling from Lebanon to some Gulf countries is one of the reasons for the tension of relations between Beirut and Gulf capitals, especially Riyadh.

Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Ahmed Nasser al-Mohammed al-Sabah visited Beirut last January and presented an “initiative” to rebuild trust between Lebanon and the Gulf States.

The Kuwaiti initiative included stricter prevention of drug smuggling from Lebanon to the Gulf States through exports and the activation of security cooperation between Lebanese and Gulf agencies.