Lebanon seizes Captagon shipment bound for central Africa, Gulf

Lebanon announced a major Captagon bust on Tuesday as the country seeks to curb the massive drug trade.

The Lebanese Internal Security Forces said they seized approximately 450,000 Captagon pills hidden in electric engines in the Beirut port on June 19. The pills were reportedly en route to Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as an unspecified “Arab Gulf state.” Efforts to arrest those involved are ongoing the official National News Agency reported on Tuesday.

Why it matters: Lebanon plays a major role in the thriving Captagon trade, a smuggling industry that thrived since the Syrian conflict in 2011. The country and neighboring Syria are both used to produce and smuggle Captagon, particularly to the Gulf. Trading the amphetamine-like drug has expanding significantly in recent years, becoming an industry worth billions of dollars, according to a 2022 report from the Newlines Institute.

Lebanese authorities have pledged to do more to curb the Captagon trade. In April, Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi announced the seizure of a whopping 10 million pills destined for Saudi Arabia and Senegal in west Africa.

In December, Lebanese drug kingpin Hassan Dekko, who some call the “Captagon King,” was sentenced to seven years of hard labor by a Lebanese court. It marked the first time a major drug dealer has been convicted of Captagon-related crimes in Lebanon, Agence France-Presse reported.

The Lebanese military organization Hezbollah is also involved in the Captagon industry, according to an October report from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 

“Hezbollah is among the groups operating on Syrian soil to regulate the Captagon trade. Press reports confirm that some areas in which Hezbollah wields great influence, including the Lebanon-Syria border villages, play a key role in smuggling operations,” it read.

Hezbollah has repeatedly denied involvement in the drug trade. Most recently, its leader Hassan Nasrallah said in May that the group had no connection to Syria-based drug trafficker Marai al-Ramthan, who was killed along with his wife and six children in a suspected Jordanian airstrike that month.

Lebanon’s role in the Captagon trade has led to scrutiny from the United States. In March, the US Treasury Department sanctioned a group of Lebanese Hezbollah affiliates for allegedly participating in it.

Gulf states, where Captagon use is popular, are also working to curb the trade. Earlier this month, Oman and Saudi Arabia seized 6 million Captagon pills.

Know more: In late May, the Biden administration said it would soon release a US strategy for fighting Captagon.