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A Saudi prince has been arrested at Beirut airport in Lebanon after two tons of an amphetamine drug popular with Syrian rebels was found on his private jet.
Prince Abdel Mohsen Bin Walid Bin Abdulaziz and four other men were held after what was described as the biggest ever drugs bust at the city’s main Rafik Hariri International Airport, according to local media and security sources.
They were allegedly “attempting to smuggle about two tons of Captagon pills and some cocaine”, a security source was quoted as saying.
Captagon is a brand name for the widely used amphetamine phenethylline.
Although this type of amphetamine has been prescribed in the past to treat childhood and other behavioural disorders, it is now used overwhelmingly as a stimulant in the Middle East.
It has long been banned in the West.
It is the drug of choice for front-line fighters on both sides in the Syrian war, allowing a heightened state of alertness.
It is unclear where the pills allegedly found in Beirut were ultimately to be sold, although the plane was said to be heading back to Saudi Arabia.