Dubai: Kuwait’s Interior Ministry has announced it foiled an attempt to smuggle 9 million Captagon pills hidden in fake oranges within a shipment of real fruit at Beirut port.
The operation was carried out by Lebanese security forces in collaboration with Kuwaiti security authorities and in coordination with Lebanon's Customs Department at the port. The shipment was en route to Kuwait.
The tablets were placed in small bags hidden in fake oranges within the shipment of real fruit. The Kuwaiti ministry got into action after receiving a tip-off from a secret source that a shipment of Captagon pills would be smuggled into Kuwait via the Beirut port.
This was the second haul of Captagon hidden in fruit in a week. On December 23, Dubai police arrested four men for trying to smuggle more than one million Captagon pills into the UAE.
The pills were hidden in plastic lemons among a shipment of real lemons. Saudi Arabia banned fruit and vegetable imports from Lebanon after more than five million Captagon pills hidden in fake oranges were seized in April 2021.
