SIDON: Lebanon’s Drug Control Bureau destroyed Monday 70 kilograms of heroin and 15 kilograms of cannabis.

The drugs, confiscated from various areas in Lebanon during two major drug busts in 2002 and 2009, were set on fire outside the police headquarters in Sidon, provincial capital of south Lebanon.

The drugs could only be destroyed once the investigations were over.

South Lebanon Prosecutor Samih al-Hajj, who was present during the demolishing procedure, said the Drug Control Bureau is committed to pursuing drug traffickers.

Col. Adel Mashmoushi, Lebanon’s drug enforcement chief, said the narcotics had been seized from both drug dealers and promoters.

“The destruction of drugs came to rescue Lebanon’s young men from this epidemic,” Mashmoushi told reporters outside the police head office in Sidon.