Dozens of canisters containing raw materials for the production of Captagon, seized by the Lebanese Army in Hor Taala (Baalbeck). (Credit: Lebanese Army official website)
BEIRUT — The Lebanese Army seized a stock of raw materials used in the manufacture of Captagon and arrested one suspect, following an armed confrontation on June 28 in Hor Taala, in Baalbeck district, near the Syrian-Lebanese border.
According to a brief statement released Monday, one of the army's units, supported by a patrol from the Military Intelligence Directorate, raided the homes of several individuals involved in the June 28 incident, and arrested one individual, seized ingredients for making Captagon, a handgun, ammunition, and counterfeit bills.
"The confiscated items have been handed over to the competent authorities, and an investigation has been opened under the supervision of the relevant prosecutor's office," the statement concludes.
Captagon is a cheap synthetic psychostimulant that was largely produced in makeshift factories in Syria under the now-deposed dictator Bashar al-Assad. Small-scale factories multiplied along the Syrian-Lebanese border, some of which remain active.
Hezbollah, which had allied with the Assad regime during the Syrian Civil War is said to be involved in several of these networks, along with Lebanese Shiite clans living primarily in the northeastern Lebanon's Hermel district.
The army's announcement follows another from Syrian security forces announcing they had seized a significant quantity of drugs coming into the country from Lebanon on Friday and Saturday.
According to Syrian authorities, the operation was carried out in the town of Nabak, located north of Damascus, about twenty kilometers from the eastern border of Lebanon. These operations are part of an intensification of efforts by Syrian authorities to counter cross-border drug trafficking with Lebanon and dismantle networks involved in the manufacturing and distribution of these substances.
