Noah Zaitar allegedly ran a drug empire, producing and exporting narcotics, together with the artificial stimulant captagon.
The Lebanese military has detained the nation’s most notorious drug lord, two years after he was sanctioned by the US over suspected hyperlinks to narcotics rings in Syria.
In a put up on X on Thursday, the Lebanese military confirmed they’d arrested a citizen with the initials “NZ”, and three safety sources confirmed to the Reuters information company that the person in query was the fugitive Noah Zaitar.
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Following a “sequence of exact safety surveillance and monitoring operations”, safety forces arrested Zaitar in an ambush within the metropolis of Baalbek in Lebanon’s jap Baalbek-Hermel governorate, the Lebanese navy mentioned.
“The detainee is likely one of the most harmful needed people, pursuant to numerous arrest warrants, for crimes of forming gangs working throughout quite a few Lebanese areas in drug and arms trafficking, manufacturing narcotic substances, and theft and theft by drive of arms,” the navy mentioned.
“He had additionally beforehand opened hearth on military parts and amenities, in addition to residents’ houses, and kidnapped people for monetary ransom. The investigation has commenced with the detainee beneath the supervision of the competent judiciary,” it added.
Zaitar allegedly ran a drug empire in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley space close to the Syrian border, producing and exporting medicine together with the artificial stimulant captagon.
A navy tribunal sentenced Zaitar – who had evaded arrest for years whereas residing in his dwelling village of Kneisseh surrounded by armed supporters – to dying in 2024 for killing a Lebanese soldier.
He was additionally named in US Division of State sanctions in 2023 towards the regime of ousted Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad and people related to his profitable captagon trafficking community.
The State Division mentioned Zaitar was a “recognized arms supplier and drug smuggler”, with shut ties to the Fourth Division of the Syrian Arab Military – an elite unit as soon as central to the captagon commerce.
It additionally mentioned Zaitar was needed for having “materially assisted, sponsored, or supplied monetary, materials, or technological assist for, or items or companies” to the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
The arrest of Zaitar comes amid an ongoing crackdown by Lebanese authorities towards drug traffickers within the nation.
In a separate put up on X on Wednesday, the Lebanese navy mentioned two troopers, named as Bilal al-Baradi and Ali Haidar, have been killed in clashes in Baalbek on Tuesday as they pursued fugitive narcotics suspects.
تنعى قيادة الجيش ـــ مديرية التوجيه، المعاون الأول الشهيد بلال البرادعي والعريف الشهيد علي حيدر اللذين استشهدا بتاریخ ١٨ /١١ /٢٠٢٥ نتيجة اشتباكات مع مطلوبين أثناء تنفيذ مديرية المخابرات سلسلة عمليات دهم بمؤازرة وحدة من الجيش في منطقة الشراونة – بعلبك.
وفي ما يلي نبذة عن حياة كل… pic.twitter.com/aIw9IjiuYi— الجيش اللبناني (@LebarmyOfficial) November 18, 2025
Translation: The Military Command – Directorate of Orientation, mourns the First Assistant Martyr Bilal al-Baradi and Corporal Martyr Ali Haidar, who have been martyred on 18/11/2025 because of clashes with needed people through the execution by the Intelligence Directorate of a sequence of raids backed by an Military unit within the al-Sharawna space – Baalbek.
The navy mentioned that one other Lebanese citizen, referred to by the initials HAJ – and named by the native information outlet Lebanese Broadcasting Company Worldwide as Hassouneh Jaafar – was shot and killed after opening hearth on Lebanese safety forces throughout that raid.
The fugitive was needed in reference to the homicide of 4 troopers, in addition to kidnapping, theft, armed theft and drug trafficking.
Lebanese authorities additionally arrested two different males – referred to solely as FM and GQ – for “selling medicine” and “possessing a amount of weapons and navy ammunition” within the Akkar governorate, north of Baalbek, near the Syrian border.
