The drug Hashish, which is popular in Lebanon and the Mid East region is prepared from cannabis

The armed individuals launched several rocket grenades and shot at the units destroying a field in the Bekaa town of Ollaq near the city of Baalbeck , NNA reported, adding that nobody was injured in the incident.

“ The perpetrators fled the scene in four cars after the ten-minute firefight.”

Vehicles owned by Office of Drug Control chief Colonel Adel Mashmoushi and LBC television crew member Mohammad Ali Ahmad were hit during the clash, the report also said.

Mashmoushi added that the amount of cannabis found in the operation would have been enough to flood the Lebanese market for many years. He also said that the razing operations will continue and assailants “will be brought to justice.”

Earlier in the day, security forces came under fire while razing cannabis fields in the Bekaa Valley town of Boudai.

US Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly assured during her meeting with the board of directors of the Association of Bankers in Lebanon on Wednesday said that US Treasury actions against the Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB) was not aimed at targeting the Lebanese banking sector , according to a statement issued by the US Embassy in Lebanon.

Washington’s move against LCB “was instead part of the US Treasury’s global efforts to protect the US financial sector from illicit activities linked to international terrorism, narcotics trafficking and money laundering,” she added .

Last February, U.S. authorities ordered sanctions against Lebanese Canadian Bank SAL that the U.S. said helped drug traffickers launder money and finance the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

Hezbollah is blacklisted as a terrorist organization by the US.

Following the sanction LCB was put up for sale . Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh in early March announced that LCB would be merged with the Lebanese branch of France’s Société Générale

Jumblatt’s accusations

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt was quoted Sunday by Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV channel as expressing concerns over what he called an “agenda” prepared by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman, including new allegations to target banks in which PM Designate Nagib Mikati has shares as part of U.S. pressure on him.

But Monday Jumblatt who switched from March 14 alliance to the Hezbollah led March 8 alliance denied making such remarks

“I have nothing to do with such remarks, and I stress my trust in the Lebanese banking sector, which lies in trustworthy hands under the supervision of the Central Bank Governor and bank owners,” Jumblatt told PSP’s Al-Anbaa weekly newspaper.

Mikati was appointed as PM designate last January following the collapse of the Government of PM Saad Hariri.

Paraguayan anti-drug trafficking agent Maria Mercedes Castineira told The Associated Press that the three men were put on a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration plane after being held for months in Paraguayan jails.

Nemir Ali Zhayter and Amer Zoher El Hossni were captured Aug. 6, 2008, in Ciudad del Este on Paraguay’s “Triple Frontier” with Brazil and Argentina. Both were allegedly involved in trafficking cocaine to the U.S., Castineira said.

Moussa Ali Hamdan was arrested last June 16 in the same Paraguayan city shortly after arriving from New York. Prosecutors in Philadelphia said Hamdan, a dual U.S.-Lebanese national, bought what he thought where stolen goods from a U.S. government informant.

Hamdan allegedly exported more than 1,700 cell phones, 400 Sony PlayStation 2 systems and three used cars after the informant told him the money as well as counterfeit currency would go to finance Hezbollah. The Iranian-backed political group, which now has a major role in Lebanon’s government, is considered by the United States to be a terrorist organization.

He faces 25 years if convicted of 31 charges filed in November 2009 in Philadelphia. Hamdan said after his arrest that he’s been falsely accused, and that if he weren’t Muslim would not have been charged.

Washington Post

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said it was labeling Ayman Joumaa, as well as nine people and 19 entities connected with his organization, as Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers.

The action means U.S. citizens are prohibited from any commercial or financial dealings with the people or entities and that any of their assets found in the United States can be seized.

The Treasury said Joumaa coordinated the transportation, distribution and sale of shipments of cocaine from South America, laundering the money in Europe and the Middle East.

It said the group operated in Lebanon, West Africa, Panama and Colombia and had laundered as much as $200 million per month through various channels.

The Treasury’s action was taken under the so-called Kingpin Act that aims to disrupt foreign narcotics traffickers by preventing them from gaining access to the international financial system. Reuters, US Treasury

The drugs were set to be smuggled to other Arab countries. SANA reported

SANA reported that the five people responsible for the operation were arrested; the two responsible for financing the operation, the one responsible for handling the drugs, the one who designed a compartment in the truck to conceal the shipment, and the truck driver .

The drug shipment reportedly consisted of 6,000 small bags, each containing 200 pills of an illegal substance known as “al-Jazeera”.

The pills were reportedly smuggled from Lebanon into Syria and were intercepted by the Syrian authorities when they were being transported from Lattakia to Damascus. An accomplice in Jordan had reportedly arranged for the shipment to be smuggled to Saudi Arabia.

It should be noted that Syria is classified by international anti-narcotics establishments as a “transit” country for drugs.

The value of the confiscated drugs is reportedly about $2 million

The unnamed warrant officer is accused of passing intelligence to Lebanese drug dealers, an army statement said.

Israel launched an offensive against Hezbollah in 2006 and the two countries remain technically in a state of war.

Lebanon began its own crackdown on suspected Israeli spy networks last year and has arrested about 70 people.

The most recent detention came last week, when Lebanese security forces arrested a technician working for a mobile telephone network on charges of spying for Israel for the past 15 years.

‘Critical information’

The Israeli army said it would file charges against the soldier and the other suspects in the coming days.

“It is suspected that an IDF warrant officer and a number of Israeli civilians were in contact with Lebanese drug dealers so as to smuggle drugs over the border,” the Israeli army statement said.

“According to the investigation, it is alleged that the warrant officer passed on military-security information to Lebanese drug dealers,” it said.

It said the other suspects also passed on “critical information” to the Lebanese contacts.

The statement did not identify the soldier or give further details on the civilians.BBC

The Israeli military said Wednesday that a warrant officer working with Israeli forces and “a number of Israeli civilians” were involved in drug smuggling activities in Israel and Lebanon. The identity of the prime suspect is still under a gag order.

The warrant officer, the military said, is suspected of passing sensitive military information to drug traffickers tied to Shiite resistance movement Hezbollah.

Washington and its allies believe Hezbollah is using the international illicit drug trade to finance its militant activity in the Middle East.

The Israeli military said “other suspects” were arrested for passing “critical information” to Lebanese militants and drug traffickers.

The civilians will be indicted by the district attorney’s office in northern Israel “in the coming days.” The findings of the probe into the conduct of the warrant officer will be handed over to the advocate general in the Israeli military, Israeli officials said.

UPI

NNA said an anti-drug taskforce raided the home of Youssef Mohammed Q, 41, in al-Musharafiyyeh neighborhood at dawn and found cocaine packed inside plastic bags and ready for distribution.

Police drug units also arrested seven addicts after the trafficker phoned them to inform them where to receive the drugs.

The suspects have been referred to the anti-narcotics bureau at the Werwar barracks for further interrogation. Naharnet

Voice of Lebanon radio said the destruction of the fields in the barren terrains of Hermel began in the morning and will continue until police eradicate remaining plantations in the area.

The Bekaa valley became notorious for its production of opium, the source of heroin, during the 1975-90 civil war but cultivation was largely eradicated by the government in the early 1990s.

However, the failure of alternative crops to generate income for farmers has led some to begin sowing poppies again in recent years.

Lebanese Customs thwarted a major drug smuggling operation through Beirut port acting customs chief Shafiq Merhi said during a press conference on Monday. “Drugs were hidden in a cable car cabin”, which was imported from southern Colombia and passed through Antwerp, Belgium, before reaching Beirut 16 days ago on May 1, 2010.

“There were almost 103 kilograms of pure cocaine amounting ten million dollars to be tripled upon procession to make it usable”, he added.

Merhi said a 79 year old man was arrested for smuggling the drugs, saying: “It is clear that he has accomplices and investigations are underway to arrest them.”

Photo: Lebanese customs stand near a machine where smuggled cocaine was hidden, displayed at the port of Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, May 17, 2010.