In April this year, the Lebanese Army faced a major security breach as it was discovered that soldiers had been stealing standard-issue weapons and selling them to arms traders.

Army intelligence arrested an officer in charge of the arms depot of one of the battalions in the eighth brigade. He is known as K.H. from Aarsal, in the Bekaa, and was suspected of stealing a large quantity of weapons and ammunition, and selling them. Army intelligence arrested another officer from the same battalion, suspected of concealing information related to the same operation.

Investigations showed that more than 90 machine guns were stolen from the Army depot, in addition to large quantities of ammunition. Army intelligence has arrested over 10 people involved in this case in Bekaa and Tariq al-Jadideh in Beirut.