Lebanon's campaign against organized crime in the eastern Baalbek-Hermel region has evolved far beyond a series of routine security raids, with authorities now pursuing a strategy aimed at dismantling the financial and logistical foundations of the country's Captagon trade, according to information obtained by Annahar.

The campaign, which has intensified since late 2020, marks a fundamental shift in the way Lebanese security forces are confronting criminal networks operating across the sprawling governorate, which covers roughly 43% of Lebanon's territory.

Long known for its rugged terrain and difficult geography, Baalbek-Hermel has for years served as the center of an interconnected criminal economy. Security officials say activities including theft, currency counterfeiting, kidnappings and terrorism functioned as secondary enterprises sustained by what had become the region's primary source of illicit revenue: the production and trafficking of Captagon.

According to a security source, recent operations have resulted in the seizure of Captagon shipments and manufacturing equipment with an estimated market value exceeding $1 billion, dealing what officials describe as a crippling blow to the criminal organizations' financial backbone.

Rather than representing isolated drug seizures, the confiscations effectively severed the principal funding stream for cross-border criminal operations whose impact extended throughout Lebanon and the wider Middle East, the source said.

Another source familiar with the operations told An-Nahar that Lebanese security forces have dismantled 50 Captagon laboratories and production facilities, while bulldozing 14 permanent drug distribution sites, known locally as rab'at.

The source said the campaign has moved well beyond arresting street-level traffickers and now focuses on destroying the networks' core infrastructure.

That strategy, officials say, has produced tangible results.

According to security assessments, drug trafficking and circulation have fallen by approximately 70%, a figure authorities say reflects not merely successful law enforcement but a structural breakdown in the criminal organizations' ability to rapidly rebuild production in what was once considered an almost impossible area to police effectively.

Much of the recent progress has been attributed to the Lebanese Army's Intelligence Directorate, whose regional offices have led a sustained intelligence campaign throughout Baalbek, western Baalbek and the Hermel district.

Using extensive surveillance and field intelligence, military intelligence units identified and targeted key manufacturing hubs across the region.

Recent operations dismantled several drug-production facilities, disrupting supply chains and depriving trafficking networks of their operational base in traditional strongholds, including Jouar al-Hashish, Harf al-Samaka, the city of Hermel and the surrounding mountainous terrain.

As permanent factories came under increasing pressure, traffickers adopted a new tactic.

According to the report, criminal groups began operating so-called "mobile laboratories"—fully equipped miniature drug-production facilities installed inside pickup trucks and other disguised vehicles.

The mobile units enabled traffickers to manufacture and compress Captagon tablets while moving between locations or during brief stops in remote areas and residential neighborhoods, making them significantly harder to detect.

Military intelligence, however, eventually adapted to the tactic.

One of the most significant operations took place on Dec. 26, 2025, when intelligence units dismantled a mobile Captagon laboratory in the Tal al-Abyad area of Sharawneh in Baalbek.

Additional preemptive raids followed in Hermel, leading to the seizure of three more mobile laboratories in Harf al-Samaka, Dallak and al-Kawak.

Authorities confiscated three fully operational vehicle-mounted Captagon production units, depriving traffickers of one of their most effective methods of evading security forces.

Security officials say understanding the evolving campaign requires distinguishing between two different levels within the criminal organizations.

The first consists of armed field commanders who are wanted by the judiciary and directly oversee trafficking operations. These individuals frequently engage Lebanese Army patrols in armed confrontations to protect drug shipments and smuggling routes.

The second group, however, represents what one source described as the far more dangerous tier.

These "masters of the trade" rarely carry weapons or face outstanding arrest warrants. Instead, they manage the networks' logistical architecture, overseeing transportation routes, distribution channels, financial operations and organizational planning.

According to the source, their importance lies not in direct participation in armed operations but in their ability to quietly rebuild trafficking networks whenever frontline operatives are arrested or eliminated

The report suggests Lebanon's anti-drug campaign has now entered a fundamentally different phase.

Following the neutralization of major security threats after the Lebanese Army's "Dawn of the Outskirts" (Fajr al-Joroud) operation, authorities have shifted from containing criminal activity to pursuing what officials describe as a strategy of complete eradication—from manufacturing through distribution and export.

Security officials said the achievements, won at the cost of soldiers killed and wounded during years of operations, were never intended simply to manage recurring security threats. Instead, they form the basis of a long-term strategy aimed at dismantling the entire Captagon economy.

The battle in the Bekaa Valley, according to the report, is no longer measured by the number of armed confrontations in the field, but by the ability to disable the hidden financiers and organizers who manage criminal enterprises from behind the scenes.