A figure long tied to massive shipments of Captagon pills has completed his sentence and been released from prison in Beirut. Hassan Daqqou, a well-known Syrian-Lebanese trafficker, exited custody after serving seven years behind bars for producing and moving illegal drugs, according to judicial officials who spoke to a local partner outlet.
Social media clips showed family members and friends celebrating his return, with cheers and embraces marking the moment. Daqqou’s arrest came in 2021, linked to a Major seizure of roughly 94 million Captagon pills intercepted in Malaysia. The pills were headed to Saudi Arabia at the time. In 2022, a Beirut court sentenced him to seven years of hard labor—a reduction from an initial life term, reportedly because he cooperated with a security body and supplied details about the drug shipment.
His lawyer once argued that Daqqou was the target of a made-up media and political smear campaign, claiming no pills were ever found on his person or at his properties. Investigators later obtained hundreds of pages of handwritten interrogation notes, tracing his rise from a street watch seller in Beirut to a major player in the country’s Captagon trade.
In his own account, Daqqou painted himself as a figure with four identities: a businessman, an operative for the Syrian Army’s 4th Division security bureau, a collaborator with Hezbollah during Syria’s conflict, and a participant in anti-drug operations tied to Syria. Since 2023, he has faced sanctions from the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union.
Even while locked up, reports suggested he kept running his illicit operations from his cell. Political influence from Hezbollah allegedly allowed him to stay in a comfortable room with internet access during his sentence.