'Sick Cows' Found at W. Bekaa Farm as Pharmacy Shut in Baalbek

A pharmacy in the Bekaa region of Baalbek was ordered temporarily shut on Saturday while a farm containing expired foods and sick cows was raided by security forces, as part of the ongoing anti-corruption campaign that was launched by Health Minister Wael Abou Faour.

“The army raided a farm owned by the Syrian A. Gh. In the western Bekaa town of al-Rawda, seizing quantities of expired canned foods and sick cows,” state-run National News Agency reported.

The army handed over the confiscated material and animals to the Internal Security Forces as a probe was launched at the instruction of the health minister, NNA said.

“A ministry team headed by food safety campaign coordinator Joyce Haddad and the district's physician Saeed Tarabay arrived on the scene and took samples,” the agency added.

Separately, Abou Faour tasked the pharmaceutical inspection unit of the Bekaa health department with “shutting down Ali Jomaa's pharmacy in the Baalbek town of al-Nabi Othman temporarily, until it settles its situation.”

On Friday, quantities of spoiled foods were seized at a factory in the town of al-Rawda.

Abou Faour's unprecedented campaign has so far led to the closure of slaughterhouses, restaurants, dairy factories and other institutions.

Joint parliamentary committees approved earlier in January a draft-law on food safety that is yet to be approved by the legislature.

Y.R.