BEIRUT: The Internal Security Forces arrested three men Tuesday believed linked to a drug smuggling operation to Saudi Arabia that led to a ban on Lebanon produce to the kingdom, a security source told The Daily Star.

Forces from the Information Branch of the ISF chased a car early in the morning that was carrying a number of wanted people on the Al-Awali-Rmeileh road north of Sidon.

Shots were fired during the chase that ended with the car of the drug dealers overturning on the Rmeileh bridge, leaving some of them injured and later transported to a hospital in Sidon.

The ISF cordoned off the hospital as the Army diverted traffic from Al-Awali-Rmeileh road to the coastal road, which became heavily congested.

The ISF, as part of its crackdown on drug dealing and smuggling in the country, has stepped up its operations and raids of suspected hideouts of drug dealers.

The security source said that three of the wanted men have been injured: two are in a serious condition and the one in moderate condition.

The names of the drug dealers are: Wahm Kueidri, Hussein Harfoush and Hussein al-Mawli.

According to the source, the operation Tuesday morning is related to investigations on the captagon smuggling operation that was discovered in Riyadh last week.

The names of the men arrested had come up in the exchange of information on investigations between Beirut and Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia last week, followed by a series of Gulf countries, banned fruit and vegetable produce imports from Lebanon after a massive drug operation was busted by Saudi authorities at their port. Millions of captagon pills were found in a shipment of pomegranates coming from Lebanon Friday.

Lebanese security forces have since imposed a tougher crackdown on the issue, as ordered by President Michel Aoun Monday, with multiple raids held.

The state-run National News Agency Tuesday reported that a Lebanese national with a Brazilian passport was arrested at the Beirut airport for smuggling 11 kilograms of cocaine from Brazil to Lebanon through a Qatar Airways flight.

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