The famous Lebanese drug trafficker Nouh Zeaïter. Photo ANI
On Thursday, Nov 20, the Lebanese Army carried out searches in Baalbeck’s Charawneh neighborhood, targeting the home of the notorious drug trafficker Nouh Zaiter — arrested that day — and that of his brother-in-law, our regional correspondent reported. Cars and military equipment were seized, surveillance cameras installed around the homes were dismantled, and suspects from the Zeaiter clan and its rival, the Jaafar clan, were arrested.
L'Orient-Le Jour dives into the developments of the case.
Zeaiter, leading Lebanese drug kingpin, is being questioned at the Defense Ministry in Baabda, where he has been held since his arrest on Nov. 20, a ministry source told L’Orient-Le Jour on Friday. The source provided no details on the conditions of his detention. A Lebanese officer from the Shiite community, who has served in the army since 1996, was also reportedly arrested on suspicion of ties to Zeaiter — who is also Shiite — and is under investigation, according to information obtained by our correspondent from security sources. Other sources dispute any link between the arrested officer and Zeaiter, claiming the officer's arrest is instead connected to financial matters. Asked for comment, an army source said they had no information.
Dubbed the "Lebanese Pablo Escobar," Zeaiter was apprehended in his village of Kneisseh in the Baalbeck-Hermel governorate. Known primarily as one of the country’s largest hashish traffickers, the 48-year-old man, a native of Taalabaya (Zahle district), is suspected of ties to Hezbollah, particularly during the party’s involvement in the fighting in Syria alongside Assad’s forces. He has been sanctioned by the United States and the European Union since 2023. In recent years, his name has also been linked to the captagon trade. In March 2024, a military tribunal sentenced him to death for firing on Lebanese soldiers, one of whom was killed.
'Nouh Zeaiter never fired on the Lebanese Army'
In an online video posted in recent days, Mahdi Zeaiter, Nouh’s son, defended his father, insisting that he “neither stole, nor worked in captagon, nor killed Lebanese soldiers.”
“Nouh Zeaiter did not steal cars; he helped the poor and gave away diesel fuel in winter. He has nothing to do with captagon,” Mahdi said, wearing a cap with a portrait of his father behind him. “Nouh Zeaiter never killed a soldier or fired on the army. The Lebanese Army was always a red line for him. He fought on the front lines with the army in Ersal,” he continued, referencing 2017 battles between the Lebanese Army and Hezbollah against Sunni Islamist groups in the Jurds of Arsal. “Nouh Zeaiter made mistakes. But that was no longer the case after 2017,” his son added.
The timing of Zeaiter’s arrest, after years of impunity, has been linked by some reports to a possible general amnesty. Families of imprisoned Sunni Islamists have long demanded an amnesty, which has yet to be declared. A potential deal to maintain sectarian balance could include the Shiite trafficker as well. However, in principle, a general amnesty should not apply to prisoners accused of killing Lebanese soldiers — a point that may explain Mahdi’s focus on asserting his father’s innocence in such a case.
In an interview Thursday on the Saudi channel al-Hadath, Achraf Moussawi, Nouh Zeaiter’s lawyer, also said his client was never involved in cases concerning the Lebanese Army and is serving only life sentences.
The Zeaiter clan frequently clashes with the Lebanese Army and the rival Jaafar clan in the Baalbeck region. In August, Ali Mounzer Zeaiter — known as “Abou Salleh,” another major trafficker in Lebanon — was killed during a Lebanese Army operation in Charawneh. The neighborhood is a regular flashpoint for clashes between wanted criminals and security forces. In July, the Lebanese Army — which has ramped up anti-narcotics operations in recent months, largely under pressure from Gulf states — dismantled one of the country’s largest captagon factories in the village of Yammouneh.
This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.
