Hezbollah denies ties to drug lord killed in Syria

The Secretary General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, has denied allegations that the Lebanese militant group was involved in drug trafficking, following the killing of an alleged drug kingpin in Syria earlier this week.

Jordanian air strikes on Monday targeted a drug smuggler and a narcotics factory, which local and intelligence sources claimed were linked to the Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Nasrallah stated in a televised speech that Hezbollah does not smuggle drugs but weapons, and that the group would never be “contaminated…with the filth of drugs.”

He called the allegations against his party “a lie, an injustice, a betrayal, a conspiracy” and hinted that Hezbollah was helping to curb the drug trade in Lebanon.

Nasrallah said that Hezbollah had dismantled captagon factories and had been confronting drug hotbeds and gangs in Lebanon.

Captagon is an amphetamine-like drug that is allegedly produced in Syria and partly along the Lebanese border.

Regional officials have accused Hezbollah of having a role in the production and trade of the drug, and in March 2023, two people affiliated with the group were sanctioned.