A shoot-out around the Roman ruins of Baalbek in central Lebanon between suspected drug traffickers and anti-narcotics agents left one dead and two seriously injured, the Lebanese police said Monday.
One of the suspected traffickers was killed, and another wounded along with a member of the security forces.
The exchange occurred just some dozen meters from the Roman temples, at rush-hour, while the temples were being visited by a number of tourists.
Four cars were hit by gunfire and panicked tourists were taken away by the Lebanese army, which had been moved into the area, an AFP correspondent said.
It was not immediately clear whether large amounts of drugs were seized from the traffickers travelling in a car prior to being stopped by police.
Farmers in the Baalbek-Hermel region have this year restarted the traditional culture of Indian hemp that the Syrian authorities, backed by the Syrian army, stopped in 1993.
Those farmers, supported by members of parliament, have sought to justify the re-start of illicit drug farming because of the economic crisis and the failure of the program aimed to offer an alternative, which failed because of the failure of international donors to deliver on promises.
From a total of 300 million dollars pledged, a mere 18 million dollars have come forth, 10 million of which from the Lebanese government.
The cultivation area covered is a mere tenth of that which thrived during the Lebanese civil war of 1975 to 1990, during which the Lebanese state was unable to impose its authority.
Drug farming and trafficking -- hashish and heroin in particular -- brought in some four billion dollars a year during the eighties -- BAALBEK, Lebanon (AFP)
