VIDEO: Lebanon seizes 9 million Captagon pills hidden in oranges ready for shipment to Gulf countries

Gulf Today Report

Lebanon's Customs seized a "large quantity" of Captagon pills that were hidden in a shipment of clementine mandarins on Wednesday.

The authorities said that nine million pills were hidden oranges.

The shipment was ready to be smuggled from the port of Beirut to the Arab Gulf countries.

Lebanon's Interior Minister Bassan Al-Mawlawi announced the news.

A photo of the minister inspecting oranges filled with Captagon seized at port was doing the rounds on social media media.

Pictures released to the media showed fake oranges filled with Captagon pills that were dissimulated in boxes containing real fruit.

Last week, Dubai Police said they have arrested four men "of Arab nationality" for trying to smuggle millions of dollars worth of captagon pills hidden in plastic lemons into the UAE.

Captagon is an amphetamine-type stimulant manufactured mostly in Lebanon, although probably also in Iraq and Syria.

The drugs had a street value of $15.8 million, were seized after a tipoff, Police Major General Khalil Ibrahim Al Mansouri said.

A total of 1,160,500 pills were seized.