Beirut: A Saudi prince and four others were detained on Monday in Lebanon in the largest drug bust in the history of Beirut airport, media reports said.
A Lebanese official said Beirut airport authorities have foiled one of the country's largest drug smuggling attempts, seizing two tons of amphetamine Captagon pills before they were loaded onto the private plane of a Saudi prince.
According to media reports, Saudi prince Abdel Mohsen Bin Walid Bin Abdulaziz and four others were detained on Monday.
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Captagon is the brand name for the amphetamine phenethylline, a synthetic stimulant. Captagon manufacturing thrives in Lebanon and war-torn Syria, which have become a gateway for the drug to the Middle East and particularly the Gulf.
The U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime said in a 2014 report that the amphetamine market is on the rise in the Middle East, with busts mostly in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria accounting for more than 55 percent of amphetamines seized worldwide.
(With inputs from agencies)
