Security forces have widened their inquiry into a Syrian-Lebanese network they dismantled, examining whether members were preparing operations in Lebanon while receiving support from a Hezbollah-affiliated charity.
Lebanese security agencies have expanded their investigation of a Syrian-Lebanese network that they dismantled in recent days, as new information emerged about its activities, funding sources and the groups suspected of providing training and protection to its members.
A judicial source said initial investigations strengthened evidence that Hezbollah members trained network participants and provided them protection, while the group received monthly funding of between 200 and 500 dollars from a charity linked to Hezbollah and based in Beirut's southern suburb.
The charity covered rent payments for Syrian officer Manaf Ali Safadi and two of his companions in the southern suburb after the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government and their flight to Lebanon, the source said.
Following the resumption of fighting in Syria on 2 March 2026, investigators found that these individuals moved from the southern suburb to the town of Tal Biri in Akkar, later returned to the suburb, then relocated to the Bekaa region, where they are suspected of undergoing military training.
The judicial source said individuals suspected of Hezbollah affiliation used phones with Nepalese numbers to communicate via WhatsApp. Call tracing showed the source was usually from the southern suburb or sometimes from the Bekaa, while location tracking of the Syrians' phones showed their repeated presence in the suburb, the Bekaa and Tal Biri.
Security agencies have begun cataloguing items found with the detainees, including assault rifles, sniper rifles, grenades and explosives, the source said.
Investigators are also examining a statement by a State Security apparatus member detained recently, who said he transported explosive devices from a house in Tal Biri before dumping them in the Great River in northern Lebanon. The relevant authorities are seeking to verify this account and locate the explosives.
Coordination with Syrian authorities remains possible. The judicial source said that once initial investigations are complete, any information about individuals inside Syria suspected of links to the network will be passed to Syrian officials for appropriate action.
The most sensitive aspect of the investigation, according to sources, concerns determining the actual scope of the group's operations and whether activity was limited to preparations for operations inside Syria or whether it also targeted security objectives in Lebanon.
Available information so far suggests Lebanon was among the operational theatres the group targeted, the source said. Investigations continue to establish the nature of possible targets and whether planning advanced to execution preparation.
The judicial source expects Lebanese agencies to intensify surveillance and preventive security operations to track former Assad regime officers and elements present in Lebanon, verifying the nature of their activities and contacts.
The danger of the data uncovered by the investigation lies in raising the possibility that the presence of some of these individuals in Lebanon was not limited to fleeing Syria or seeking refuge from prosecution, but that some had security roles and objectives.
Security agencies are treating the detained network as an entry point for a broader investigation, operating on the hypothesis that the discovered group may not be the only one and that other networks linked to remnants of the former regime may still be active in Lebanon.
