Lebanese authorities have arrested two Nigerian nationals for allegedly smuggling cocaine worth over $500,000 into the country. According to L’Orient Today, the suspects were apprehended in July 2025 at a hotel in the Kesrouan district, north of Beirut, after arriving from Nigeria via Ethiopia.
Find delivery companies in minutes on Carry.ng — Nigeria’s growing delivery marketplace
The Central Bureau for Drug Control revealed that the men, identified only as R.A. (born 1996) and L.N. (born 1977), had ingested 156 capsules of pure cocaine weighing about three kilograms. The suspects reportedly landed at Beirut’s international airport at dawn on July 24, 2025, and proceeded to the hotel to excrete the drugs and hand them to a local dealer.
The Internal Security Forces (ISF) disclosed that investigators had been tracking the suspects’ movements and arrested them “in the act.” The seized narcotics were valued at more than half a million U.S. dollars.
The ISF said the arrests were part of a broader investigation into an “international organisation recruiting people to deliver cocaine to Lebanon,” operating routes from Nigeria to Lebanon with a stopover in Ethiopia.
This drug bust comes just weeks after another attempt to smuggle narcotics into Beirut was foiled on May 22, 2025, when a suspect from an African country was caught at the airport with drugs hidden in suitcases and swallowed in capsule form.
Punch reports that arrests of Nigerians abroad for criminal activities such as cyberfraud, human trafficking, and drug smuggling have been increasing. In July, the Ghana Immigration Service confirmed the arrest of about 50 Nigerians in Accra for alleged cyberfraud and human trafficking during a coordinated raid in McCarthy Hills, Ga South Municipality.
The Lebanese authorities say investigations are ongoing to dismantle the drug network and identify its recruiters.
#NigeriaCrimeNews #LebanonDrugBust #CocaineSmuggling #InternationalCrime #DrugTrafficking #BreakingNews #BeirutArrest #CrimeWatch