The Lebanese Army announced on Tuesday it arrested four people over ties to a truck found with bags of ammonium nitrate found earlier this month in the eastern Bekaa Valley.
“After seizing a truck loaded with ammonium nitrate in the town of Laat in Bekaa last September, and the arrest of six individuals, including Lebanese nationals Maroun Sakr and Ahmed Al Zein, the judiciary referred the arrestees to the Intelligence Directorate and tasked it to complete the investigation,” the Lebanese Army Command - Directorate of Orientation said in a statement.
Nine other people suspected of being involved in the case were also arrested, including Lebanese national Saadallah Al Soleh, the truck owner, and Syrian national Khaled Al Hassan, Sakr’s driver.
Investigations revealed that in March 2021, Al Soleh bought the ammonium nitrate shipment from Sakr, and Syrian nationals, Obeida Al Abed Al Rahman and Khaled Al Hassan, transferred these materials, the statement said.
Two Syrians, in addition to Sakr and Al Soleh, were referred to judicial authorities for buying, storing and transporting “banned products.”
In mid-September, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that security forces raided a fertilizer warehouse in the eastern Bekaa Valley, considered a hub for smuggling operations between Lebanon and Syria and seized 20 tons of the dangerous chemicals stored inside a truck parked at the warehouse.
Ammonium nitrate is an odorless crystalline substance commonly used as a fertilizer that has been the cause of numerous industrial explosions over the decades.
At least 214 people were killed and some 6,500 others wounded on August 4, 2020 when a shipment of the chemical carelessly stocked at the Beirut port for years ignited and caused a massive blast.
