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Recent efforts have seen 50 pounds of gold prevented from reaching the hands of Hezbollah.
Members of the Lebanese army walk near Beirut international airport, Lebanon
Dozens of staff members at Beirut airport with ties to Hezbollah have been fired as the new government works to crack down on the terror group at one of its main import hubs, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing senior Lebanese security and military officials.
While laws have existed for some time, the officials noted that they had finally begun being enforced, resulting in the arrests of numerous smugglers.
Ground crew members told the WSJ that, unlike in the past, no planes or passengers have been exempt from searches, and flights from Iran have been suspended since February.
“You can feel the difference,” Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said in an interview with the WSJ. “We’re doing better on smuggling for the first time in the contemporary history of Lebanon.”
Lebanon has previously denied reports that Hezbollah has an arsenal stored at the airport – claiming the media had been influenced by Israel.
Anonymous airport workers claimed to the Daily Telegraph that Hezbollah was holding a weapons cache at the airport. One worker said that in November, “unusual” boxes arrived from Iran and that a high-ranking Hezbollah official was overseeing the customs shipments.
Lebanese ministers Abdallah Bou Habib, Walid Nassar, and Ziad Makary led tours to international media last year to disprove the Telegraph’s report, but refused access to reporters to a key cargo depot.
