Saudi Arabia says it thwarts drug smuggling operation from Lebanon

DUBAI: Saudi Arabia said it had thwarted an attempt to smuggle 14.4 million amphetamine pills from Lebanon, two months after it banned imports of Lebanese agricultural produce, citing an increase in drug smuggling.

The report on state news agency SPA late on Saturday said the pills, hidden in a shipment of iron plates, had been seized by the General Directorate of Narcotics Control in coordination with the tax and customs authority at Jeddah Islamic Port.

A Saudi citizen was arrested in the Riyadh region and referred to the public prosecution, it said.

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Imposing the agricultural produce ban in April, Riyadh said fruit shipments from Lebanon had been used to hide drugs, citing the example of a batch of pomegranates that it said had been hollowed out and filled with Captagon pills, a type of amphetamine.

It was not clear when the ban might end.