drugs

US Strikes on Alleged Drug Boats in Pacific Amid Rising Tensions with Colombia

President Donald Trump and his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, traded angry threats Wednesday as the United States announced strikes on two alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Pacific Ocean that left five people dead. Trump branded Petro a "thug" and suggested he was a drug trafficker leading his country to ruin, prompting the leftist ...

LAF Arrests Four in Raids Targeting Drug Traffickers

The Lebanese Army (LAF) announced on Wednesday that it had arrested four individuals in separate raids as part of its ongoing efforts to maintain security and combat drug trafficking. In its statement, the LAF said the operations were carried out with support from Intelligence Directorate patrols. According to the statement, an army unit, also ...

Senate Panel Probes Hezbollah Links to Latin American Drug Trade

The US Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control convened a hearing on Tuesday to examine suspected connections between Hezbollah and Latin American drug trafficking networks, as lawmakers warned of the group’s expanding footprint in the Western Hemisphere. Chaired by Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), the bipartisan session focused on ...

Lebanon Steps Up Against Captagon Trafficking Network

In 2025, Lebanon achieved a significant breakthrough in the fight against the manufacturing and trafficking of Captagon pills– inflicting losses of hundreds of millions of dollars on those behind these illicit operations. Lebanese security forces demonstrated their ability to confront this criminal cartel – a challenge of major local, regional ...

Addiction: The Body Speaks the Unspoken

Understanding addiction means looking beyond the mere fact of dependency. If the first part traced the origins of emptiness and the formation of lack, the challenge now is to grasp why—when suffering cannot be symbolized—the body steps in and makes the symptom speak. Since Freud, psychoanalysis has tried to probe what escapes language: ...

Cocaine Market: Low Prices, High Health Risks

Cocaine prices are falling, but the risks are rising. In Lebanon, as elsewhere, a gram has never been cheaper. It may seem like a “good deal,” but behind the low price lies a harsh reality: regulated use, a growing number of addicts and mounting health risks. Cocaine, or “coke” to regular users, is circulating more freely than ever. ...

Lebanon Seizes Record Cocaine Shipment from Brazil at Tripoli Port in Saudi-Coordinated Operation

In what Interior Minister Ahmad al-Hajjar called a “historic” operation, Lebanese authorities have intercepted the largest cocaine shipment the country has seen in years. Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Hajjar revealed that the operation was made possible through “coordinated efforts with Saudi ...

Salloum Warns of Threat from Expired Medicines

Expired medications piled up in pharmacies pose a significant threat to patient safety. This is what Dr. Joe Salloum, head of the Lebanese Pharmacists’ Syndicate, expressed, calling on the Ministries of Health and Environment to ensure that expired drugs are collected and destroyed outside Lebanon. He stressed that the risk they present is ...

ISF Foils Cocaine Smuggling Attempt from Nigeria

The Internal Security Forces (ISF) announced Wednesday the seizure of 156 cocaine-filled capsules weighing 3.4 kilograms, with an estimated street value exceeding $500,000 once mixed with other substances. According to an ISF statement, the Central Anti-Narcotics Office uncovered an international network planning to smuggle the drugs from Nigeria ...

Lebanese Army Dismantles One of Largest Captagon Factories in Baalbeck Area

The Lebanese Army dismantled a major Captagon factory in the town of Yammouneh, in the Baalbeck area, on Monday, in what authorities described as one of the largest drug facilities ever seized in the country. According to a statement from the Army Command, the raid was carried out by a unit from the Intelligence Directorate, supported by military ...

Lebanese Army Arrests Several Traffickers, Seizes Weapons and Drugs in Zebdine

The Lebanese Army carried out a series of raids on Sunday in Zebdine (Nabatiyeh district), following armed clashes that erupted on June 25 in the Sabra and Shatila camps between rival drug trafficking gangs. In a statement issued Monday, the army announced the arrest of four individuals: three Lebanese nationals (M.Ch., H.G., and A.K.) and one ...

Syrian Authorities Seize 3 Million Captagon Pills Near Lebanese Border

Syria said Friday that authorities had seized some three million pills of the illicit stimulant captagon after clashes with a drug trafficking network near the Lebanese border. Authorities observed the network "coming from Lebanon into Syrian territory" via illegal border crossings in the Jarajir area in the northern Damascus countryside, said a ...