Two Nigerians Nabbed in Lebanon For Alleged Cocaine Smuggling

Two Nigerian nationals have been arrested in Beirut, Lebanon, for allegedly smuggling 156 cocaine capsules weighing about three kilograms and valued at more than $500,000.

Reports from L’Orient Today noted that the arrests took place in July inside a hotel in the Kesrouan district, north of Beirut, following an operation by Lebanon’s Central Bureau for Drug Control.

The agency said it had been investigating “an international organisation recruiting people to deliver cocaine to Lebanon,” noting that the operation ran “from Nigeria to Lebanon, transiting through Ethiopia.”

The Internal Security Forces (ISF) disclosed that the suspects, identified only as R. A. (born 1996) and L. N. (born 1977), arrived at Beirut’s international airport at dawn on July 24, 2025.

“They had swallowed cocaine capsules and went directly to a hotel in Kesrouan to extract the capsules and hand them over to a local dealer,” the ISF statement read.

Authorities said investigators, who had been tracking the pair, arrested them “in the act” and recovered “156 capsules of pure cocaine,” which the ISF estimated to be worth “more than half a million U.S. dollars.”

The latest bust comes after a similar arrest on May 22, when a man attempting to smuggle narcotics from an African country into Beirut was caught at the airport with drugs concealed in his suitcases and ingested in capsule form.