Iraq helps Lebanon dismantle large Captagon factory

Iraqi News

a day ago

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Iraqi Ministry of Interior said on Monday that it assisted the Lebanese security in dismantling a large Captagon factory in the Bekaa area in eastern Lebanon.
The highly addictive amphetamine Captagon factory was discovered and destroyed following security coordination between Iraqi and Lebanese intelligence agencies.
Iraqi intelligence provided accurate details that allowed the Lebanese army to carry out a significant raid in mid-July, confiscating the facility and stopping massive quantities of narcotics from being produced and distributed.
The step is considered the strongest strike against Captagon networks in the Middle East.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani warned during the Baghdad International Conference on Countering Narcotics in July 2024 that drug trafficking and usage pose a severe danger to regional stability.
Al-Sudani clarified that the effects of drugs are comparable to those of terrorism, as they both undermine family structures and security.
Despite remarkable efforts implemented by the Iraqi government to prevent drug dealing, the number of drug addicts and traffickers in the country has been alarmingly rising in the past few years.
In March 2024, the Iraqi Ministry of Interior revealed that more than 1,400 suspects, including foreign traffickers, had been arrested in different parts of the country on drug-related offenses in February alone.
The Interior Ministry also illustrated that nine tons of psychoactive chemicals and almost 390 kilograms of narcotics were seized in the same month.
Iraqi security forces discovered a Captagon production factory in the southern Iraqi governorate of Muthanna for the first time in the country in July 2023.
Drug trafficking has become a profitable business in Iraq, with experts estimating its total value at more than $10 billion.