Hezbollah accused of turning Lebanon’s Bekaa valley into drug hub

BEKAA VALLEY, LEBANON - NOVEMBER 25: As Lebanon is mulling the legalization of cannabis cultivation for exclusively medicinal purposes, Hezbollah is accused of turning Lebanon into a center for drug production and shipment through the weak state authority, easy access ports, and facilities it has established in the regions it holds. Saudi Arabia in particular, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, and Bahrain announced that they cut off all diplomatic relations with Lebanon on 29-30 October. The Arab countries’ decision was based on the Lebanese government's "failure" to stop operations to smuggle drugs to the Gulf countries. According to Riyadh, Hezbollah, a Lebanese political party and militant group which controls all the customs gates and ports of Lebanon, can ship drugs to the world as it wishes. In last April Saudi Arabia’s customs authorities thwarted an attempt to smuggle more than five million Captagon pills from Lebanon into the Kingdom, hidden inside a shipment of pomegranates. The Arab Kingdom banned imports of Lebanese fresh produce after the seizure of 5 million pills. The Lebanese officials said the drug-stuffed shipment entered Lebanon from Syria and was repackaged in an area of the Bekaa Valley - a Hezbollah hotbed- before being shipped to the port of Jeddah. On Thursday (Nov. 25) Anadolu Agency Video News correspondent talked to government officials and experts about the cultivation of cannabis and the captagon pill, which is allegedly belonged to Hezbollah and manufactured in Lebanon. Lebanese Christian farmer George Fahuri, who cultivates cannabis in the valley, said, "A kilo of Indian cannabis in the field is averagely 400 dollars, but this price reaches 3000 dollars when it goes abroad." “Drug dealers buy cannabis from farmers through intermediaries. No one (farmers) is contacting them. It (cannabis trade) is not inspected,” added Fahruri. (Footage by Sulaiman Amhaz/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)