Lebanese army breaks up human smuggling rings

The Lebanese army announced on Thursday that it has broken up two rings of human smugglers who were helping Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian migrants entering Europe by sea.

"The intelligence agents arrested Lebanese Mustafa Mohammed Kalseena and Palestinian Khaled Taleb al-Naamani, who attempted to help people make their way to Europe," the army said in a statement.

Kalseena was arrested in October last year, but was released later on bail.

The military intelligence also arrested Palestinian Suleiman Ahmed Zaarour, who was part of another ring to help people flee the country.

The army found in the possession of the suspects around 29,000 U.S. dollars, in addition to the lists of names they were planning to smuggle through Lebanon's northern coast, the statement added.

The year 2015 has seen the worst refugee crisis in Europe since World World II, as floods of migrants have been risking their lives to reach Europe to flee their conflict-ridden countries, mainly Iraq, Syria and Libya. Endit