The Anti-Drug and Money Laundering Unit of the General Directorate of Customs announced that "through diligent field monitoring and tracking of suspicious shipments, and through relentless efforts to combat and thwart drug smuggling operations, as well as intensifying investigations and gathering information to arrest those involved, supervised by the Public Prosecution Office, a suspicious shipment was identified being prepared for sea shipping via the Port of Beirut to an European country. This shipment consisted of stone ovens (tanoors). Movements of its senders, who were using forged identities and moving cautiously between the Bekaa and Kesrouan regions, were closely monitored."
It added that "through intensive information-gathering efforts, the identities of the network members and their locations were pinpointed for arrest after confirming that the shipment contained drugs. It was found that the mastermind behind the operation had a criminal record. After obtaining information about his communication with a second group of traffickers in the areas of Sanayeh and Bourj Hammoud, the second group was monitored, and the location of one of its main members, identified as (H.N.), was established in the Nabaa area. His movements were tracked, and he was arrested in the Al-Basha Bridge area with a stash of identification cards and forged documents used in his travels. A machine for producing halva, intended for export to Paraguay, was seized containing 121 kg of cannabis. Concurrently, through monitoring, investigations, and raids, 937 kg of cannabis were seized within the oven shipment, and the identities of all the gang members who were hiding have been identified with ongoing efforts to apprehend them. Investigations were conducted under the supervision of the Public Prosecution Office, and the arrest was handed over along with the file to the Central Anti-Drug Office of the Internal Security Forces."
