Lebanese Army dismantles captagon factory in Hermel

Lebanese Army announced on Monday that it had raided a captagon production facility in the Harf Sammaqa area, in Hermel (North Bekaa), near the Syrian-Lebanese border.

They reported having dismantled the factory and seized a large quantity of pills already produced, as well as raw materials used in their manufacture. An investigation has been opened regarding this matter.

Almost simultaneously, the official Syrian news agency SANA also announced a seizure at a "captagon pill manufacturing laboratory on the Syrian-Lebanese border," conducted by the anti-narcotics department of the Syrian security forces. The seized products and tools were confiscated to be "destroyed later."

It was not immediately clear if these two operations are connected.

Captagon is a cheap synthetic drug that was produced in artisanal factories primarily in Syria under the regime of Bashar al-Assad, who was ousted in December 2024. Artisanal factories had also proliferated along the Syrian-Lebanese border, some of which are evidently still operational.