The Internal Security Forces seized over 15 tons of hashish at an Ouzai warehouse that was intended to be smuggled abroad hidden inside paint buckets, the agency said in a tweet Sunday.
The raid was carried out Friday, and all of the suspected members of the gang involved in the drug trafficking were arrested, the ISF said.
The buckets belonged to a paint factory that was not related to the smuggling operation, the ISF added.
A video, sent by a security source, showed one bucket tipped over to reveal at least twenty bags of hashish and a mixture of dirt and what looked like paint used to conceal them.
“Do you see what’s inside them?” a voice can be heard asking one suspect standing nearby whose hands were cuffed behind his back. “Do you know what they are?”
The suspect said he bought the mixture but didn’t know that drugs were hidden inside.
The judiciary is currently supervising ongoing investigations into the case. The stash represents the largest hashish smuggling bust in over a year.
In February, the Lebanese Army seized a ton of hashish during a raid in the northeastern Hermel district, during which several wanted persons were arrested.
The illicit materials seized by police in such raids are often burned. In 2017, the state-run National News Agency reported that east Lebanon police had disposed of nearly seven tons of hashish in July.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
