Iraq says intelligence helped dismantle one of Middle East’s largest Captagon factories in Lebanon

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s Interior Ministry said Monday it helped Lebanese authorities dismantle what it described as the largest Captagon factory in the Middle East, uncovered in Lebanon’s Bekaa region through joint intelligence operations.

“The close security and intelligence cooperation between Iraq’s Interior Ministry/General Directorate for Narcotics Affairs and Lebanon’s General Directorate of State Security resulted in a major achievement represented in dismantling one of the largest Captagon factories in Bekaa,” the ministry said in a statement.

It added that Iraqi intelligence provided precise information that enabled the Lebanese army in mid-July to launch a major raid, seizing the facility and preventing “huge quantities of narcotics prepared for production and distribution, in a strike described as the strongest against Captagon networks in the Middle East.”

Lebanon’s General Directorate of State Security, in a letter to Iraq’s Interior Ministry, said the cooperation “reflects the strength of relations between the two countries and embodies Iraq’s leading role in confronting cross-border threats, foremost among them drugs, which are the greatest danger to Arab societal security.”

On July 15, the Lebanese army announced it had raided a facility in Yammouneh, Baalbek district, calling it one of the largest drug production sites uncovered to date.

The army said forces dismantled equipment and machinery weighing nearly 10 tons, destroyed some of it on site, and seized large quantities of Captagon, crystal meth, and other narcotics. It said a bulldozer was used to fill in a 300-meter tunnel linked to the facility that was used for movement and storage.

Investigations remain ongoing as authorities pursue those involved in the operation, the army said.