The General Directorate of Internal Security Forces - Public Relations Division, issued a statement today, Monday, stating: "As part of the efforts undertaken by the Internal Security Forces to combat human smuggling via the sea, results from the monitoring and follow-up conducted by the Zahle Judicial Detachment in the Judicial Police Unit revealed that the Syrians: M. N. (born in 1975) and M. J. (born in 1971) were involved in smuggling individuals of Syrian, Lebanese, Egyptian, Palestinian, African, and other nationalities from Libya to Europe using boats, in coordination with individuals of Lebanese nationality in the Wadi Khaled area. One of their boats capsized off the coast of Tobruk, Libya, resulting in the death of dozens of migrants, a tragedy that received media attention at the time.
Afterward, one of them fled from Libya to Syria after surviving an attempted murder by relatives of the victims, and they then entered Lebanon illegally, where the first took refuge in the town of Lala in the Bekaa, and the second in the town of Bar Elias. The second individual was kidnapped by unknown assailants in the Wadi Khaled area, held for four months, and forced to pay $43,000 as compensation to the individuals he intended to smuggle to Europe via Libya, which he could not pay after settling the owed amounts.
Both individuals were arrested in Lala and Bar Elias, and upon questioning, they admitted to charging $3,500 for each person smuggled. Hundreds of people were smuggled across the sea from Libya to Italy and Greece using ferries, each with a capacity ranging from 250 to 500 people of various nationalities, in collaboration with the two brothers of the second detainee: M. J. (born in 1983), residing in Libya, and M. J. (born in 1973), residing in Greece. Legal actions were taken against them, and they were referred to the concerned authorities based on judicial directives, and search warrants were issued against the second detainee's brothers."
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— Internal Security Forces (@LebISF) October 2, 2023
