Snapped Shot

The Bekaa Valley was an incredibly fertile and varied agricultural land. The Bekaa Valley in central Lebanon, with the warm Mediterranean sun beating down on it, is one of the most ideal places in the world to cultivate cannabis and poppies. Before the civil war in Lebanon began in the late 1970's drug production was minimal. Lebanon was a prosperous country. Beirut was known as the `Paris of the East' and tourists, not drug crops were soaking up the Sun.

Then war destroyed Lebanon and its economy. Numerous factions, each with their own militias, split up and occupied different parts of Lebanon. Each needed a source of income for weapons and ammunition to supply their armies. Many illegal activities were tried such as counterfeiting and kidnapping, but eventually the narcotics trade came to be seen as the most effective way to raise money. As the war continued and weapons became increasingly expensive and more difficult to get, drug production increased as well. Battles would often be fought over fertile fields and drug crops. Narcotics growing and trafficking became a way of life for an entire generation in Lebanon. By the early 1990s cannabis or opium crops covered almost 75 percent of the 4,280 square kilometer Bekaa Valley.

In addition to Lebanese cannabis, Hezbollah may traffick heroin out of Iran and distributing it through their Lebanon-based cannabis trafficking network. Money from narcotics goes to support Hezbollah's militia within Lebanon, and presumably also to support their terrorist attacks around the world.

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