Lebanon’s drug trade booms with help from Hezbollah’s Captagon connection

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Updated 07 July 2021
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Lebanon’s drug trade booms with help from Hezbollah’s Captagon connection

  • Authorities struggle to deal with narco-trafficking originating in Bekaa Valley and Syria
  • Economic crisis, Syria’s war and political elite’s docility blamed for lost battle against drugs

BEIRUT: Lebanese security forces say they have launched dozens of operations in recent months in search of laboratories manufacturing Captagon pills, while closely monitoring coastal and land borders with Syria in an effort to identify smuggling routes.

The country’s fight against drugs, though, is an uphill battle amid multiple overlapping crises, notably its economic collapse and political paralysis.

And the elephant in the room is Hezbollah: Many suspect the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group facilitates the illicit drug trade to finance its operations while maintaining plausible deniability.

Captagon is an amphetamine, and one of the most commonly used drugs on Middle East battlefields.

Combatants addicted to the narcotic say it helps them stay awake for days and numbs their senses, giving them stamina for long battles and allowing them to kill with abandon.

Owing to its ability to make users energetic and happy, Captagon is known to have also become a popular recreational drug in the wider region.

Since Saudi Arabia’s customs authorities thwarted an attempt in April to smuggle more than five million Captagon pills from Lebanon into the Kingdom, hidden inside a shipment of pomegranates, officials say criminal syndicates have become even more “brazen.”

It was after this consignment of Captagon was discovered that Saudi Arabia suspended shipments of Lebanese fruit and vegetables entering the Kingdom or transiting through its territory.




Saudi Arabia’s customs authorities thwarted an attempt in April to smuggle more than five million Captagon pills from Lebanon into the Kingdom, hidden inside a shipment of pomegranates. (SPA)

At the time, Lebanese authorities said “the drug-stuffed shipment entered Lebanon from Syria and was repackaged in an area of the Bekaa Valley before being shipped to the port of Jeddah.”

Two Syrian brothers were arrested in Lebanon soon after the discovery, accused of repackaging the shipment at an abandoned warehouse in Bekaa. But even this major bust was not enough to put the smugglers out of business.

On June 15, Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces (ISF) thwarted another attempt to smuggle 37.2 kg of Captagon pills into Saudi Arabia via Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport, hidden inside a consignment of electric water pumps.

READ PART ONE

Explained: How Hezbollah built a drug empire via its ‘narcoterrorist strategy.’ Click here for more.

Three people were arrested, including the alleged ringleader, a stateless person with a history of drug smuggling, along with a Syrian and a Lebanese.

The trio reportedly confessed to setting up a smuggling network and claimed they had received the shipment from Syria before transporting it to Beirut.

The ISF’s best efforts, though, were not enough. Saudi authorities at the port of Jeddah announced another major drug bust on June 26, seizing an estimated 14 million Captagon pills hidden inside iron plates sent from Lebanon.




Saudi officials say criminal syndicates have become even more “brazen” in their attempts to smuggle drugs. (SPA/File Photo)

Mohammed Al-Nujaidi, spokesperson for the Kingdom’s General Directorate of Narcotics Control, confirmed the arrest of a Saudi citizen in the Riyadh area in connection with the shipment.

On June 29, Lebanese authorities seized another haul of Captagon pills also destined for Saudi Arabia. In a statement, the ISF said 17.4 kg, the equivalent of 100,000 pills, were seized. “They were expertly hidden inside medical equipment sterilization machines,” the statement added. Two Lebanese and one Syrian national were reportedly arrested.

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In July 2020, Italian police and customs agents at the port of Salerno found 84 million Captagon tablets in shipping trailers that appeared to contain only paper rolls.

Intelligence officials concluded the drugs, worth an estimated $1.1 billion, originated in factories located in parts of Syria controlled by President Bashar Assad’s government.

“The amphetamines departed Syria from Latakia, a coastal city with dedicated Iranian port facilities and a known hub for smuggling operations by Tehran’s ally, Hezbollah,” the Washington Post said.




In July 2020, Italian police and customs agents at the port of Salerno found 84 million Captagon tablets in shipping trailers that appeared to contain only paper rolls. (AFP/Guardia di Finanza Handout/File Photo)

Hezbollah strenuously denies the charge that it is involved in drug trafficking, but the Post report quoted US and Middle East analysts as saying: “Facing extreme financial pressures because of US sanctions, the coronavirus pandemic and Lebanon’s economic collapse, Hezbollah appears to be growing increasingly reliant on criminal enterprises, including drug smuggling, to finance its operations.”

Hatem Madi, a former Lebanese public prosecutor, told Arab News: “The Captagon pill trade became active because it is easier to smuggle, and faster.

“It is subject to supply and demand. There is no doubt that the war in Syria has left the door open for smugglers and drug traffickers.”

Indeed, Lebanon has become a major conduit for smuggling of Captagon pills manufactured in Syria. Even before the country’s descent into civil war in 2011, its territory was used by Lebanese militias to cultivate and smuggle marijuana, generating millions of dollars.

“Captagon is manufactured in Syria, especially in the regions of Homs and Aleppo,” Brig. Gen. Anwar Yahya, a former head of Lebanon’s judicial police, told Arab News.

“In light of the events taking place in Syria, some of the factories have relocated to the villages found between Lebanon and Syria on the Anti-Lebanon Mountain Range and in the areas of Qusair and Tufail.”




The Italian-seized drugs, in the form of 84 million Captagon tablets, were worth about €1 billion, police said in a statement, describing the operation as "the biggest seizure of amphetamines in the world." (AFP/Guardia di Finanza Handout/File Photo)

Western intelligence analysts claim Hezbollah operatives began manufacturing Captagon more than a decade ago but the drug began to gain prominence in tandem with the militia’s expanding commitments in Middle East conflicts.

“Is Hezbollah involved in manufacturing Captagon pills? This issue requires a judicial or security source,” Yahya told Arab News.

“However, the judiciary in Lebanon is silent. Is it out of fear or is the judiciary hiding something? I have no idea, but we are aware of the investigations and know who is involved.”

What is beyond doubt is that the Bekaa Valley, bordering Syria, is a Hezbollah hotbed. It has training camps in the region’s highlands and controls its own border crossings with Syria, where it has intervened in support of the Assad regime.

The most prominent person to be arrested by Lebanese authorities in Bekaa in connection with Captagon is Hassan Daqou. Dubbed the “King of Captagon,” Daqou had several business interests in Tufail, a town that overlaps the border with Syria and is controlled by Hezbollah.

However, following a local land dispute, Daqou was turned over to the Lebanese army, accused of establishing a Captagon laboratory in the area and overseeing a smuggling network sending pills to Greece and Saudi Arabia.

“Daqou has ties with Hezbollah and the Fourth Division, which is headed by Maher Assad, the Syrian president’s brother,” Mohammed Al-Hujairi, a Future Movement MP, told Arab News.

Since the beginning of 2020, counterfeit Captagon and other illicit drugs have been seized in Egypt, Greece and Jordan besides Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Italy. Western law enforcement officials have specifically linked Hezbollah to drug seizures from the Syria-Jordan border to central and southern Europe.

But what interest might Hezbollah have in the production and trafficking of drugs?

“There are unusual smugglers that have a political or ideological background,” Ashraf Rifi, a former ISF director general who later served as Lebanon’s justice minister, told Arab News. “They do not work according to profit or loss considerations. Instead, they have political goals, namely targeting the opponent’s society.”

US and European drug agencies are convinced that Hezbollah profits from the drug trade. Europol issued a report in 2020 cautioning that Hezbollah members were using European cities as a base for trading in “drugs and diamonds” and to launder the profits. In 2018, the US State Department named Hezbollah among the top five global criminal organizations.




Captagon pills are displayed along with a cup of cocaine at an office of the Lebanese Internal Security Forces (ISF), Anti-Narcotics Division in Beirut. (AFP/File Photo)

Whether or not the drugs trade has been weaponized, it is certainly consuming a lot of the Lebanese government’s time and resources. According to one security source, measures taken by the security forces in recent years have led to the arrest of over 15,000 people.

Rifi said there had been seizures “unprecedented in the history of Interpol in regards to the quantities of narcotics being smuggled and the level of brazenness when it comes to smuggling and targeting.

“There is a partnership between Hezbollah and the Syrian side in terms of manufacturing and smuggling, while smuggling may also be undertaken unilaterally by one of the sides,” he said.

“The efforts aimed at countering drug smuggling from Lebanon require a wise administration. A corrupt administration that is subservient to Hezbollah makes a show of addressing the problem, but it does not actually defend the people or the interests of the country,” Rifi added.

Yahya believes Lebanon’s counternarcotics unit, a badly under-resourced and poorly utilized force, is fighting with one hand tied behind its back.




A string of major drug busts in Syria and Lebanon has drawn new attention to the trade in captagon, an illegal substance that has flourished in the chaos of Syria's war. (AFP/File Photo)

“Unfortunately, the judicial police anti-drug office, which has files that date back dozens of years and include photos and fingerprints of the people and networks involved, is being sidelined,” he told Arab News.

“Instead, we see that the bodies handling these cases are the ISF Information Division, the customs, the army or people that have no jurisdiction over such issues.”

Yahya wants Lebanese authorities to tighten control along the borders, at the airport and seaports; equip border control personnel with scanners; activate the work of the anti-drug office and provide it with the necessary tools and staff.

More broadly, Lebanon must address its economic collapse and its ability to support its security personnel, who need to provide for their families.

“The delay in the government’s formation,” he said, “is a major, and possibly the main, obstacle standing in the way of activating the security apparatus and the role of the army.”


Israel strikes south Lebanon, Aoun holds urgent talks to halt attacks

Updated 08 May 2025
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Israel strikes south Lebanon, Aoun holds urgent talks to halt attacks

  • Hezbollah field commander killed, civilians injured in 19 airstrikes across Nabatieh area
  • Nawaf Salam condemned the Israeli strikes on Nabatieh and said the government was aiming to ‘put an end to the Israeli violations as soon as possible’

BEIRUT: Israel conducted heavy airstrikes in south Lebanon on Thursday, hitting targets north of the Litani River in violation of a US-brokered truce.

Following the strikes in the Nabatieh region, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun held urgent talks with high-level foreign contacts to halt the Israeli violations.

The airstrikes killed one person, reportedly a senior Hezbollah military leader, and led to multiple injuries, sparking panic in schools, universities and among residents.

Aoun followed up on security developments with army chief Gen. Rodolphe Haikal, receiving reports on the areas struck by the Israeli bombardment.

The Ministry of Health said that the initial death toll of the Israeli airstrikes on the outskirts of Nabatieh was one, with eight injured.

A source familiar with Aoun’s communications told Arab News: “The president’s contacts primarily involved the US and French sides, as they are sponsors of the ceasefire agreement and key members of the committee overseeing its implementation.”

The president reportedly called on the US and France “to pressure Israel to halt its attacks,” but the talks “did not yield any concrete guarantees.”

Israeli jets launched about 19 airstrikes on the area between Kfar Tebnit, Jabal Ali Taher, Nabatieh Al-Fawqa and Kafr Rumman, forming what resembled a ring of fire.

Containing valleys, hills and forests, the area is located about 4 km from the city of Nabatieh, which itself is 56 km from Beirut.

The unprecedented Israeli attack on the region, untouched since the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah took effect on Nov. 27, specifically targeted the Ali Taher area, considered a Hezbollah-controlled security zone.

Hezbollah reportedly lost one of its top military commanders, Abu Hussein Shahrour, who, according to reporters in the region, “was one of the party’s key fighters and played a pivotal role in the 1997 Sajd operation against the Israeli occupation.”

According to Israeli media, a “senior source” in the Israeli army said the military “attacked a significant target in southern Lebanon, consisting of underground infrastructure.”

Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said the target “was used to manage the fire and defense systems of the Hezbollah terrorist organization.”

According to Adraee, the airstrikes “targeted personnel, combat equipment and wells. The site in question was part of a strategic underground project and was put out of service as a result of the strikes.”

He added that “the site and activities there are a blatant violation of the understanding between Israel and Lebanon.”

The Israeli army “will continue to act to eliminate any threat to Israel’s security and will prevent any attempt to rebuild Hezbollah’s capabilities,” Adraee said.

The Israeli army’s Northern Command said it would maintain its “offensive policy” against Hezbollah.

The airstrikes and massive explosions triggered loud bangs that echoed throughout Nabatieh and the south.

Residents near the targeted areas rushed to evacuate their children from schools, and most official departments shut down.

Later, the Israeli army opened fire with machine guns on a civilian vehicle on the Odaisseh-Kafr Kila road in the border area.

The car sustained damage. However, the female driver and her daughter escaped unharmed.

Meanwhile, in the morning, Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets on several areas in the south, resembling banknote-like papers that carried incendiary phrases against Hezbollah. These included: “Hezbollah’s dollar is haram (forbidden in Islam) and will not benefit you after it destroyed your house and displaced your family.”

Another said: “Do not miscalculate things and do not accept the yellow dollar.”

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned the Israeli strikes on Nabatieh and said the government was aiming to “put an end to the Israeli violations as soon as possible.”

He added: “The government has spared no diplomatic effort to stop these actions and ensure Israel’s withdrawal from the hills it still occupies.”

Salam, accompanied by a ministerial delegation, traveled to Baalbek in the morning on a Lebanese army helicopter and inspected the border plains with Syria.

He has repeatedly called for Lebanon to ramp up its border security.

Salam called for strengthened security measures during a security meeting at Baalbek Serail, highlighting the need to “maintain stability and ensure successful municipal elections with complete transparency and integrity” throughout the governorate.

Meeting with local representatives, the premier announced progress on establishing a cannabis regulatory authority, describing it as a pathway “to transition toward a development-based economy benefiting regional residents.”

Salam was unequivocal that “neither security nor development can function through arbitrary measures.”

He highlighted the urgent need to resolve transportation challenges between Beirut and the Bekaa Valley, while advocating for Baalbek’s restoration as a premier tourist destination in Lebanon.

Salam also visited the Masnaa border crossing with Syria, receiving detailed security briefings from military personnel on site.

“The Masnaa crossing serves as a vital gateway for both the Bekaa and Lebanon as a whole. It must operate according to the highest technical and security standards rather than succumbing to disorder or discretionary practices,” Salam said.

He added that advanced scanning equipment would soon be installed “to facilitate goods movement, enhance transparency and enable properly regulated land exports of Lebanese products.”

Salam said that transforming the border crossing “from a vulnerability into a symbol of state effectiveness” represents a critical first step in broader reforms.

“This is where change begins — with Lebanon fully reclaiming control of its borders and converting them into gateways for legitimacy and order, not channels for chaos and violations.”


Released Palestinian student to help launch immigrant legal aid initiative in Vermont

Updated 08 May 2025
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Released Palestinian student to help launch immigrant legal aid initiative in Vermont

  • Mohsen Mahdawi, 34, who led protests against Israel’s war in Gaza at Columbia University, spent 16 days in a state prison
  • “We will not fear anyone because our fight is a fight for love, a fight for democracy, a fight for humanity,” Mahdawi told supporters

VERMONT: A Palestinian student arrested during an interview about finalizing his US citizenship is helping to launch an initiative to help other immigrants facing deportation in Vermont on Thursday, a week after a federal judge freed him from custody.
Mohsen Mahdawi, 34, who led protests against Israel’s war in Gaza at Columbia University, spent 16 days in a state prison before a judge ordered him released on April 30. The Trump administration has said Mahdawi should be deported because his activism threatens its foreign policy goals, but the judge ruled that he has raised a “substantial claim” that the government arrested him to stifle speech with which it disagrees.
Immigration authorities have detained college students from around the country since the first days of the Trump administration. Many of them participated in campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war, which has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians. Mahdawi was among the first to win his freedom after challenging his arrest.
“Justice is inevitable. We will not fear anyone because our fight is a fight for love, a fight for democracy, a fight for humanity,” Mahdawi told supporters outside the courthouse last week.
He will join Vermont State Treasurer Mike Pieciak, Senate Majority Leader Kesha Ram Hinsdale and community advocates at the Statehouse to announce the Vermont Immigration Legal Defense Fund. The group, which also includes lawyers and philanthropists, says the goal is to improve access to legal advice for immigrants and build long-term infrastructure within the justice system as it pertains to immigration law.
Members of Vermont’s congressional delegation have spoken up on Mahdawi’s behalf, as have state politicians. Vermont’s House and Senate passed resolutions condemning the circumstances of his detention and advocating for his release and due process rights.
Republican Gov. Phil Scott has said there is no justification for the manner in which Mahdawi was arrested, at an immigration office in Colchester.
“Law enforcement officers in this country should not operate in the shadows or hide behind masks,” the governor said the next day. “The power of the executive branch of the federal government is immense, but it is not infinite, and it is not absolute.”
Mahdawi, a legal permanent resident, was born in a refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and moved to the United States in 2014. At Columbia, he organized campus protests and co-founded the Palestinian Student Union with Mahmoud Khalil, another Palestinian permanent resident of the US and graduate student who was arrested in March.
His release, which is being challenged by the government, allows him to travel outside of his home state of Vermont and attend his graduation from Columbia in New York later this month.


UN chief voices ‘grave concern’ after Sudan’s aid hub rocked by 5 days of drone attacks

Updated 08 May 2025
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UN chief voices ‘grave concern’ after Sudan’s aid hub rocked by 5 days of drone attacks

  • Port Sudan is the country’s main entry point for humanitarian aid
  • Country’s brutal civil war has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions

NEW YORK CITY: The UN secretary-general has voiced “grave concern” over repeated drone attacks on the eastern Sudanese city of Port Sudan, the country’s main entry point for humanitarian aid.

The city faced a new drone strike on Thursday for the fifth consecutive day amid a fierce confrontation between the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces paramilitary.

The attacks have led to an exodus of civilians from the city, which hosts UN offices and aid agencies, and is the seat of power of the army-backed government.

Sudanese army officials have blamed the RSF for the strikes, which have targeted the city’s port, largest operational fuel depot, central power station and airport, among other sites.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the attacks “threaten to increase humanitarian needs and further complicate aid operations in the country,” his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said on Wednesday.

“The secretary-general is alarmed at the expansion of the conflict into an area that has served as a place of refuge for large numbers of people displaced from the capital, Khartoum, and other areas,” he added.

Sudan’s brutal two-year-long civil war has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 13 million.

The conflict has created “the biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded,” the International Rescue Committee has said.

“The secretary-general reiterates that all parties to the conflict must comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law,” Dujarric said.

“They must not direct attacks against civilians and civilian objects; must take all feasible precautions to avoid, and in any event to minimize, incidental civilian casualties; and must allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for civilians in need.”

Almost all humanitarian aid enters the Northeast African country through Port Sudan.

The Chinese Embassy in Sudan on Thursday called on all Chinese citizens to leave the country as soon as possible.

Guterres is “concerned at the lack of political will of the parties to return to the negotiating table, preferring instead to continue pursuing their military objectives,” Wednesday’s statement said.

“The secretary-general calls on the parties to engage constructively with the mediation support mechanisms already in place to assist the parties to reach a political solution, underscoring the UN’s continued support to help find a way out of this crisis. 

“He renews his call for an immediate cessation of hostilities and stresses that dialogue is the only way to achieve the peace that the people of Sudan demand.”


Syria believed to make no purchase in 100,000 T wheat tender, traders say

Updated 08 May 2025
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Syria believed to make no purchase in 100,000 T wheat tender, traders say

  • Traders said Syria could issue a new purchase tender soon
  • Shipment was sought within 45 days from the contract award

HAMBURG: A Syrian state grains agency is believed to have made no purchase in an international tender seeking 100,000 metric tons of milling wheat which closed in April, European traders said on Thursday.
Traders said Syria could issue a new purchase tender soon.
Shipment was sought within 45 days from the contract award.
Syria had bought about 100,000 tons of wheat in its previous tender reported on March 25, which was believed to be the first large purchase tender since the change of power in Syria late last year.
But the donation by Iraq of 220,000 tons of wheat to Syria was expected to be used for Syria’s immediate import requirements, traders said.


Chinese embassy in Sudan urges citizens to evacuate amid security concerns

Updated 08 May 2025
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Chinese embassy in Sudan urges citizens to evacuate amid security concerns

  • The embassy warned of dwindling supplies of water, electricity and fuel

BEIJING: The Chinese embassy in Sudan on Thursday issued a statement urging Chinese citizens in the country to evacuate as soon as possible, citing deteriorating security situation and rising security risks.
The embassy warned of dwindling supplies of water, electricity and fuel, and advised citizens to evacuate via ships to Saudi Arabia or available international flights, or to travel by land to Egypt.