BEIRUT: Lebanese customs seized five million banned captagon pills at Beirut port on Wednesday, an amphetamine shipment intended for Greece and Saudi Arabia, a customs official said.
Following a tip-off, officers had found the drugs hidden inside a tile-making machine, the official said, asking to remain anonymous as he was not allowed to speak to the press.
Three Lebanese citizens were detained over the affair, he said.
It was latest in a string of similar drug busts in Lebanon.
Captagon is an amphetamine manufactured in Lebanon and probably also in Syria and Iraq. It has been one of the most commonly used drugs in the war in Syria, where fighters say it helps them stay awake for days.
Captagon is cheap and easy to manufacture, and experts say there have also been attempts to market it as a low-priced alternative to cocaine, including in the West.
In July last year, Italy seized a record 14-tonne haul of the drug -- or 84 million pills -- that had arrived from Syria.
Lebanon seizes 5m captagon pills at Beirut port
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Lebanon seizes 5m captagon pills at Beirut port
Netanyahu ‘sought plan to evade responsibility for Oct. 7 attack
- Critics have repeatedly accused Netanyahu of refusing to accept blame for the deadliest attack in Israel’s history
JERUSALEM: A former close aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that immediately following the October 2023 Hamas attack that triggered Israel’s two-year war in Gaza, the Israeli leader instructed him to figure out how the premier could evade responsibility for the security breach.
Former Netanyahu spokesperson Eli Feldstein, who faces trial for allegedly leaking classified information to the press, made the explosive accusation during an extensive interview with Israel’s Kan news channel Monday night.
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Feldstein said Netanyahu looked ‘panicked’ when he made the request. He was later told to omit the word ‘responsibility’ from all statements.
Critics have repeatedly accused Netanyahu of refusing to accept blame for the deadliest attack in Israel’s history. But little is known about Netanyahu’s behavior in the days immediately following the attack, while the premier has consistently resisted an independent state inquiry.
Speaking to Kan, Feldstein said “the first task” he received from Netanyahu after Oct. 7, 2023, was to stifle calls for accountability.
“He asked me, ‘What are they talking about in the news? Are they still talking about responsibility?’” Feldstein said. “He wanted me to think of something that could be said that would offset the media storm surrounding the question of whether the prime minister had taken responsibility or not.”
He added that Netanyahu looked “panicked” when he made the request. Feldstein said he was later told by people in Netanyahu’s close circle to omit the word “responsibility” from all statements.
Netanyahu’s office called the interview a “long series of mendacious and recycled allegations made by a man with clear personal interests who is trying to deflect responsibility from himself,” Hebrew media reported.
