Iraqi and Lebanese intelligence agencies have joined forces to discover and destroy one of Lebanon’s largest drug factories producing the highly addictive amphetamine Captagon.
The operation, announced by Iraq’s Ministry of Interior on Monday, showcases a rare security cooperation between the two countries.
This development comes a month after the Lebanese army discovered a factory with large amounts of drugs in Yammoune village in the eastern Bekaa Valley.
The Lebanese operation in Yammoune in mid-July was initiated after Iraqi authorities provided Beirut with information about the factory.
A senior Lebanese security official said it was unclear why Iraqi authorities made the announcement on Monday, adding that Lebanon’s security agencies are always in contact with Arab and international security agencies.
Arab states have intensified efforts to combat the massive drug trade, with the vast majority of the world’s Captagon being produced in neighboring Syria and some production in Lebanon.
Western governments have estimated that Captagon generated billions of dollars in revenue for ousted longtime Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, his family, associates, and allies.
The former government in Damascus denied these accusations. However, after al-Assad’s fall in December, opposition fighters who took control of the capital, Damascus, uncovered large stashes of Captagon, a stimulant that has long been mass-produced in the country.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, the interim Syrian president, accused the former regime of turning Syria into “the world’s leading source of Captagon” and promised to crack down on Captagon manufacturing and trade.
In February, the interior ministers of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq held talks in Amman on ways to combat the illegal drug trade and agreed to set up a joint telecommunications cell to exchange information.
Smugglers have used Jordan as a corridor to smuggle Captagon pills out of Syria, mainly to oil-rich Arab Gulf states. This cooperation highlights the growing recognition of the need for regional efforts to address the issue of drug trafficking.