Israeli Colonel Who Was Lured into Drug Dealing by Hezbollah Dies

Elhanan Tannenbaum, a former Israeli colonel and businessman who was famously captured by Hezbollah in Lebanon, has died at the age of 78.

Tannenbaum’s name became famous in the early 2000s in connection with his capture by Hezbollah and a controversial prisoner swap in Israel.

According to a report in the Israeli newspaper “The Jerusalem Post,” Tannenbaum was kidnapped by Hezbollah in 2000 when he traveled to Lebanon under the guise of searching for information about a missing Israeli pilot named Ron Arad.

But it turned out that he had fallen into a trap set by Hezbollah, which lured him into a deal to smuggle drugs into Israel for $200,000, knowing that Tannenbaum was suffering from serious financial difficulties.

At the time of his capture by Hezbollah, he was a reserve colonel in the Israeli artillery corps.

Four years after his abduction, Israel struck a deal with Hezbollah, mediated by Germany, in which Hezbollah released Tenenbaum and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers in exchange for more than 400 Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the deal was controversial at the time because Tenenbaum was involved in “illegal activities that led to his abduction.”

Tenenbaum initially claimed that he had traveled to Lebanon to gather information about the missing Israeli pilot, but it later emerged that he was heavily in debt and that his trip was part of a drug deal brokered by Hezbollah.

Upon his return to Israel, Tenenbaum was questioned by authorities for two months.

Tenenbaum initially claimed that his motive for traveling to Lebanon was to search for the pilot, but he eventually confessed to his role in the drug smuggling operation.

In 2007, a special military court demoted Tenenbaum from colonel to army officer.