15 tons of hashish found in paint buckets in Beirut warehouse
Lebanon's Internal Security Forces raided a paint warehouse in Ouzai, south Beirut, and seized about 15 tons of hashish packed in plastic paint buckets and bound for export. Gang members were arrested in what officials called the country's biggest drug bust.
Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces raided a paint warehouse in Ouzai, south Beirut, on 1 June
2018 and seized about 15 tons of hashish packed in plastic paint buckets.[1][2]The drugs
were masked in brown and white blocks and were set to be exported out of the country.[1][2]
Security forces arrested several suspected members of the trafficking gang but published
neither their number nor their identities, and sent the case to prosecutors for review.[1][2]The labels on the buckets belonged to a paint factory unrelated to the smuggling
operation.[2]
Photos and video
Marijuana blocks recovered from the Ouzai warehouse. Photo: Internal Security ForcesPhoto details
Source: Lebanese Examiner · archived copyMore than 15 tons of marijuana were recovered from the warehouse. Photo: Internal Security ForcesPhoto details
On 9 October 2026, Lebanese Army personnel clashed with smuggler A.B. on the outskirts of Aarsal as he tried to move drugs into Syria; he was arrested with about 60 kg of hashish, 35 kg of Captagon, 22 kg of marijuana, a handgun and ammunition. No injuries were reported.
Customs seized 6.416 kg of hashish at Beirut airport from an Egyptian traveller, hidden in a shipping suitcase and bound for an Arab country. The case was one of the few cannabis-specific seizures reported in 2024.
Lebanon's Internal Security Forces stopped eight soil-carrying trucks bound for Beirut port and found about 25 tonnes of hashish hidden in the bags, the largest drug seizure in the country's history. The haul, announced on 10 April 2020, was bound for an unnamed African country.
Lebanese police seized 2,500 kg of hashish in raids on warehouses in the village of Barga in the Bekaa Valley on 1 February 2002. Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board records the seizure in a research response on organized crime and the drug trade in Lebanon, citing Associated Press reporting of the same day.
