Lebanese customs officers seized 103 kilograms (227 pounds) of cocaine in a record drugs bust at Beirut port, a port official said on Monday.
"Customs officials earlier this month seized 103 kilograms of raw cocaine, hidden in the hydraulic machine of a goods lift, in the biggest drugs bust at the port to date," acting customs chief Shafiq Merhi told reporters.
Merhi said the cocaine, smuggled from Colombia through the Belgian port of Antwerp, was worth some 10 million dollars (7.8 million euros). Once processed and mixed, its street value would have been 30 million dollars.
He said sniffer dogs had not picked up on the scent because the cocaine was hidden beneath metal and engine oil, but officials noticed something was amiss when the machine went through the scanners.
Authorities arrested a 79-year-old Lebanese national suspected of involvement in the smuggling and had launched an investigation into "his partners and others implicated."
The bust comes as the interior ministry announced the arrest of more than 40 people on drug-related charges, including a top dealer.
[Source: Al-ManarTV]
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