Maybe this guy was conducting an experiment into what happens when you get a blue whale high on uppers, or something:
A Saudi prince has been detained at Beirut airport in Lebanon after two tons of an amphetamine drug popular with Syrian rebels was found on a private jet.
Prince Abdel Mohsen Bin Walid Bin Abdulaziz and four other men were held after what was described as the biggest ever drugs bust at the city’s main Rafik Hariri International Airport, according to local media and security sources.
They were allegedly “attempting to smuggle about two tons of Captagon pills and some cocaine”, a security source was quoted as saying.
Captagon is a brand name for the widely used amphetamine phenethylline.
I can’t for the life of me figure out where Prince Abdul Muhsin is perched on the extensive Saudi family tree (the only Saudi prince “Walid” I know is Alwaleed b. Talal, and as far as I can tell he’s only got one son and this dude ain’t it). But Saudi palace intrigue is actually less interesting than the fact that he was dealing in Captagon. This is a drug that’s both widely consumed and widely produced in Syria, so our bro prince here almost certainly purchased his two freaking tons of the stuff from some group of Syrian rebels (I mean, it’s possible he was going the other direction and planning to sell them in Syria, but Lebanese officials say that his jet was preparing to take off for Saudi Arabia when they were nabbed). It’s also popular in the Gulf, apparently (and outside of there and Syria it’s not really widely used anyplace else), so the prince could have been planning to sell his haul back at home or may just have been planning some massive parties.
Ideally the investigation into this case will uncover which rebel group or groups Abdul Muhsin dealt with and what he used to buy the drugs (presumably money, of course, but I suppose weapons are a possibility). Though given that the Saudis can afford to buy favorable justice for themselves, I’m a little skeptical that this case will actually be closely investigated at all.
UPDATE: Salon’s Ben Norton makes a hell of a good point here:
While this may seem like just another case of rich and powerful aristocrats going wild, the implications of this drug bust are much more insidious: In Saudi Arabia, people are executed over drugs. And not rarely — several times a month, on average.
In fact, just hours after the Saudi prince was caught with thousands of pounds of drugs, a Pakistani drug smuggler was executed by the Saudi government.
Roughly half (47 percent) of people executed in Saudi Arabia are killed for drug-related offenses, according to Amnesty International. From August 2014 to August 2015, Amnesty documented 175 Saudi executions, an average of one every two days.
Every four days then, on average, the Saudi government executes someone for drug-related offenses — while its own princes are caught in airports with tons of drugs.
I guess there’s no point looking for fair justice in a repressive theocratic monarchy, but this is pretty awful.
Hey, thanks for reading! If you come here often, and you like what I do, would you please consider contributing something (sorry, that page is a work in progress) to keeping this place running and me out of debtor’s prison? Also, while you’re out there on the internet tubes, please consider liking this blog’s Facebook page and following me on Twitter! Thank you!
The Foreign Exchanges Companion 