A purported drugs and weapons smuggling attempt across the Lebanese border into Israel on July 2021. Photo: Screenshot/IDF

Israeli security forces said on Sunday that they busted a major drug and weapons-smuggling ring run by Hezbollah and Iran on the Lebanese border, and arrested two Israeli operatives involved.

A statement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the smuggling operation, which was underway for the past year, was established from Lebanon by the Iranian regime and its proxy Hezbollah in order to facilitate terror attacks in Israel.

The operation was exposed and busted by a task force led by the IDF, Israel Police, and other security agencies.

This team discovered that Israeli and Palestinian smugglers had met with Lebanese operatives several times in order to coordinate terrorist activity in Israel, the IDF said. On one such occasion, Iran and Hezbollah’s involvement in the smuggling effort was also confirmed.

The two Israeli suspects, identified as Arab residents of the Galilee, were found to have met with two Lebanese drug smugglers in Turkey, where they were asked to smuggle weapons into Israel for use by terrorists, as well as to assess their own ability to carry out terrorist attacks in Israel.

According to the IDF, the two men worked under the guidance of a high-ranking Hezbollah member involved in drugs and weapons smuggling.