Minister of Interior and Municipalities, Judge Bassam Mawlawi, on Thursday confirmed to Al-Rai daily that the Lebanese authorities were serious about combating the smuggling of drugs and Captagon pills to Arab countries, especially to Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

“The seizure that took place at Beirut Port is an outright evidence of the seriousness of Lebanon’s Ministry of Interior and security services in combating smuggling; this is our duty,” Mawlawi said.

“Our message to Kuwait, the Kuwaiti government, and the brotherly people of Kuwait is a message of love, concern, and unity,” he added, revealing that there are already a number of detainees involved in this matter and that investigations will continue in secret to access all the details of the shipment, manufacturing, packaging and transportation.

“We’ve taken the path of combating this scourge and this evil about two months ago, and we are continuing to do what is necessary to keep evil away from our Arab brothers,” he affirmed.

The Minister of Interior then admitted that the drug shipment that had been seized in Dubai inside a shipment of citrus a few days ago was from Lebanon.

“We’ve traced where the shipment came from and where it went, and we are following up with the exporting company that had transferred the shipment to Dubai,” Mawlawi explained.