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THE HIDDEN WORLD OF CAPTAGON IN LEBANON

Blackmail, vanishing acts and dirty money: The secretive business of a Lebanese Captagon kingpin

Pomegranates stuffed with pills, dummy corporations, false certificates: How did Lebanon become a hub for trafficking Captagon? Do the authorities have the means to fight it? Does this export product also wreak havoc among Lebanese youth? And why do some local barons still escape justice? L’Orient-Le Jour digs past the headlines on Captagon through this four-article series.

Blackmail, vanishing acts and dirty money: The secretive business of a Lebanese Captagon kingpin

Illustration: Iva Kovic

BEIRUT — “We have people at the Beirut and Riyadh airports, we pay them, the route is secure,” the recruiter Jassem al-Hamid promised a young Syrian man at a home in Saudi Arabia’s capital.For 30,000 Saudi riyals (approximately $8,000), the 22-year...
BEIRUT — “We have people at the Beirut and Riyadh airports, we pay them, the route is secure,” the recruiter Jassem al-Hamid promised a young Syrian man at a home in Saudi Arabia’s capital.For 30,000 Saudi riyals (approximately $8,000), the 22-year...