The Lebanese army on Thursday detained Noah Zaitar, a Lebanese national wanted over alleged drug trafficking, two years after he was sanctioned by the U.S. over suspected links to narcotics rings in Syria.
Three Lebanese security sources told Reuters that troops had arrested Zaitar, after years of arrest warrants they said he managed to evade. The Lebanese army said in a statement that it had detained a man with the initials “N.Z.” in the eastern Bekaa region, near Zaitar’s hometown.
Zaitar’s lawyer, Ashraf al-Moussawi, told Reuters his client faced about 2,500 pending cases and was seized in an ambush by army intelligence officers. “Zaitar did not resist nor fire a single shot during the arrest,” Moussawi added.
The arrest came two days after two Lebanese soldiers were killed in clashes in the Bekaa region in pursuit of fugitives suspected of drug trafficking, the army said on X.