Lebanese army kills three top drug lords in major Baalbek raid

The Lebanese army announced on Wednesday that it had killed three of the country's most notorious drug traffickers during a major security operation in the eastern city of Baalbek.

In a statement, the army said it had been pursuing a vehicle carrying three wanted men, identified by their initials as A.M.Z., known as Abu Salleh, A.A.Z., known as Sultan, and F.Z., in the Sharawneh neighbourhood of Baalbek, when a shootout broke out, killing all three.

"These individuals were among the most dangerous drug traffickers in Lebanon," the army said. "They were also wanted for murdering army personnel, kidnapping, armed robbery, and attacks on army patrols and posts."

The military said the men had been operating for years across various parts of the country, spreading narcotics and fuelling crime, particularly among youth. It added that previous attempts to arrest them had resulted in injuries among its soldiers.

The army denied reports that it had targeted the suspects' family homes or clashed with local residents during the operation.

According to sources who spoke to The New Arab, Wednesday's raid was part of a wider security campaign launched months ago by the army to crack down on drug traffickers, smugglers, and other wanted individuals, especially along the porous Lebanese-Syrian border and in the Baalbek-Hermel region - long a stronghold of powerful families and armed groups, including Hezbollah. These dynamics have often complicated enforcement efforts.

Among the dead was Abu Salleh, one of the country's most wanted men. Last year, a Lebanese military court sentenced him to death in absentia, alongside his associate Nouh Zeaiter, for crimes including forming an armed gang and killing a soldier during a 2022 army raid in Baalbek.

Abu Salleh reportedly earned his nickname from the method he used to distribute drugs - dropping them from a basket over the balcony of his flat in Fanar’s Zeaiter neighbourhood, before relocating to Baalbek.

Last month, the Lebanese army dismantled one of the country's largest captagon factories in the nearby town of Yammouneh as part of an intensified crackdown on drug production and trafficking.

Efforts to combat the drug trade have also featured in international diplomacy. A US memo delivered to Lebanese authorities last November, currently under discussion by the Lebanese cabinet, calls for joint efforts to dismantle cross-border drug supply networks.

The proposal includes boosting the army and internal security forces’ capacity, improving coordination with Syrian authorities under international oversight, and establishing a multilateral anti-drug framework backed by the US, EU, Gulf states, and the UN.