In a significant development underscoring growing regional collaboration against transnational drug networks, Iraq has revealed that intelligence sharing with Lebanon was instrumental in dismantling one of the Middle East’s largest Captagon production facilities. The announcement, made by Iraq’s Interior Ministry on August 18, sheds new light on a July raid by the Lebanese army that uncovered a vast underground operation linked to the lucrative Captagon trade-a narcotics industry valued at billions of dollars and deeply intertwined with regional instability.

In mid-July, Lebanese security forces announced the discovery of a major Captagon factory in the mountainous region of Yammouneh, roughly 25 kilometers from Baalbek, an area long associated with smuggling and illicit trade. The Lebanese army reported finding a massive 300-meter tunnel designed to move and store raw materials for drug production.

Footage released at the time showed soldiers operating bulldozers to fill in the tunnel, piles of narcotics being incinerated, and large quantities of seized materials. Authorities said they confiscated around 10 tonnes of equipment and machinery, as well as destroying large amounts of Captagon pills, crystal meth, and other narcotics on-site.

Lebanon’s initial announcement, however, made no mention of foreign assistance. That omission was corrected weeks later when Iraq’s Interior Ministry publicly declared that its Directorate of Narcotics Affairs had provided “precise intelligence” to the Lebanese General Directorate of State Security, enabling the raid to be carried out.

Baghdad hailed the joint success as a “qualitative achievement” and described it as the “strongest blow” yet to Captagon networks........

© Blitz