30 April 2008
BEIRUT: Seven Syrians and one Lebanese were sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for smuggling drugs through Lebanon after being busted at a port in Beirut, according to a judicial report issued on Tuesday. Primary investigative magistrate in Beirut, Abdel-Karim Mahmoud, issued a report which also disclosed the identities of three men, Jaber Njeim and Ali al-Fahaida from Qatar and Ibrahim Saleh from Yemen, who are being held on the charges of attempting to smuggle large amounts of the drug Captagon, but who have not been sentenced. The drugs were discovered at a port in Beirut hidden in a bus, which the Judiciary believes was headed to Qatar. Syrians Bashir Ibo, Mustafa Ibo, Shady Abour, Ahmad al-Sheikh, Musa Ibrahim, Ibrahim Saleh and Saleh Akash received the bus, which had come from Turkey through Syria, then handed it over to a Lebanese identified as Nadim T. Captagon, a stimulant commonly used to treat cases of ADHD, has been illegal in Arab countries for over twenty years and is a common recreational drug.
Copyright The Daily Star 2008.
