Last Friday, Lebanese authorities seized $2.5 million in cash from a passenger arriving from Turkey. The passenger, Mohammad Aref Hussein, admitted that he flew to a Turkish airport on Thursday night, where he met an Iranian individual in the duty-free area who handed him the money. He then flew back to Beirut, where he was caught.

After three days of preliminary investigations, Judge Jamal Al-Hijjar referred the case, along with the detainee, to the Appeals Public Prosecutor in Mount Lebanon, Judge Sami Saader, who charged him with “money laundering and transferring large sums of money without declaring them.” The case was then referred to Investigating Judge Kamal Nassar in Mount Lebanon.

The interesting part is that the Higher Islamic Shiite Council claimed, only three days after the arrest, that the money belonged to them and was not intended for Hezbollah (Potato, potahto). They even sent a letter to Judge Al-Hajjar to reclaim the so-called donations.

As for the money, and given the charges against the suspect, it will likely be confiscated in favor of the state’s treasury. This will hopefully encourage security forces to be even more thorough in their searches and seize any illegal funds coming into the country.