For the third consecutive day, the joint security forces and the Lebanese army continued the implementation of the security plan in the region of Bekaa.
In this regard, the security forces raided on Saturday the north Bekaa town of Maqne and arrested two fugitives, and set up fixed and mobile checkpoints across the streets, where the forces verified the identities of the passengers.
The Lebanese army also raises Syrian refugee camps in the tone of Deir al-Ahmar.
So far, 66 fugitives have been arrested and 36 stolen vehicles and several tons of hashish have been seized.
On Friday, Minister of Interior Nouhad al-Machnouq, General Security leader Major General Abbas Ibrahim and Director General of Internal Security Forces Major General Ibrahim Basbous carried out a tour in the Bekaa valley to inspect the implementation of the security plan. Following the tour, Machnouq held a press conference in which he said that there was an impression that the Bekaa was not under the state's authority, adding that the security plan “proved otherwise.” He also asserted that the security plan will continue in an attempt to announce the Bekaa region as free of fugitives, drugs and criminal activity. Machnouq stressed that the dangerous fugitives fled to Syria, adding that the security plan is set to prevent them from returning. “No one is above the law and fugitives will not remain on the run,” he concluded by saying. Also on Friday, the joint forces from different security branches arrested 56 people in raids at the homes of several fugitives in the northern Bekaa Valley, seizing quantities of drugs, weapons and stolen vehicles. The arrests come as members of the Lebanese Armed Forces, Internal Security Forces and General Security raided fugitives in the Bekaa villages of Brital and Hawr Taala. A security plan had been launched in the Bekaa, since Thursday dawn, to crackdown on criminals in a region known to be a safe haven for car-theft gangs and drug dealers, as well as rings that kidnap in exchange for ransom.