The collapse of Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria has revealed large-scale Captagon manufacturing services fueling a $10 billion international commerce within the extremely addictive stimulant, in accordance with consultants.
Among the places used for manufacturing the drug have been the Mazzeh air base in Damascus, a car-trading firm in Latakia and a manufacturing unit that when made snack chips within the Damascus suburb of Douma. Government forces seized the manufacturing unit in 2018.
“Assad’s collaborators controlled this place. After the regime fell … I came here and found it on fire,” Firas al-Toot, the unique proprietor of the manufacturing unit, advised The Associated Press. “They came at night and lit the drugs on fire but couldn’t burn everything.”
“From here, Captagon pills emerged to kill our people,” Abu Zihab, an activist with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the primary group now ruling the nation, stated whereas his group gave journalists entry to the location.
Syria’s practically 14-year-old civil warfare fragmented the nation, crumbled the economic system and created fertile floor for the manufacturing of the drug. The Assad authorities reworked the manufacturing of Captagon from a small-scale operation run by legal teams right into a billion-dollar industrial income stream.
The latest ousting of Assad has disrupted these networks and has given a better have a look at its operations – revealing the workings of a warfare economic system that sustained Assad’s energy over Syria. Experts say the change in Syria would possibly create a possibility to dismantle the Captagon business.
Captagon was first developed in Germany within the Sixties as a prescription stimulant for circumstances like narcolepsy. It was later outlawed attributable to coronary heart points and its addictive properties.
Its amphetamine-like results made it widespread within the Middle East warfare zones, because it enhanced focus and lowered fatigue.
Assad’s authorities acknowledged a possibility within the cheaply manufactured drug amid Syria’s financial turmoil and the heavy sanctions imposed on it.
Captagon is produced by means of a easy chemical course of that entails mixing amphetamine derivatives with excipients to type tablets, usually in makeshift labs.
The Captagon commerce started industrializing round 2018-2019 because the Assad regime – and different armed teams in Syria – invested in manufacturing services, warehouses and trafficking networks. This allowed Syria to emerge as the biggest producer of Captagon globally, with some manufacturing additionally occurring in Lebanon.
Overwhelming proof
Most seized consignments of Captagon originated from Syria, in accordance with knowledge by the New Lines Captagon Trade Project, an initiative of the New Lines Institute assume tank.
Evidence of the Assad regime’s sponsorship of the Captagon business is overwhelming, the report printed in May stated. The Security Office of the 4th Armored Division of the Syrian regime’s military, headed by Bashar Assad’s brother Maher oversaw operations and created a coordinated manufacturing system, the report added.
Captagon was smuggled throughout borders in vans and cargo shipments. Sometimes the medication have been hid in meals, electronics and building supplies to evade detection.
The main smuggling routes have been Syria’s porous borders with Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, from which the drug was distributed all through the area. The main markets are rich Gulf nations like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
In Lebanon, the Captagon commerce has flourished, notably close to the Syrian border and within the Bekaa Valley. Lebanese authorities struggled to curb the circulate of Captagon from Syria, which analysts say was facilitated by the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
Following the invention of crates of fruit meticulously filled with bundles of the drug hidden amongst pomegranates and oranges, Saudi Arabia and the UAE applied bans on Lebanese agricultural merchandise.
Captagon has additionally discovered its manner so far as Southeast Asia and elements of Europe.
The annual international commerce in Captagon had an estimated worth of $10 billion, with the ousted Assad household’s annual revenue reaching round $2.4 billion, in accordance with Caroline Rose, director of the New York-based New Lines Institute Captagon Trade Project.
“Seeing the uncovering of so many industrial-scale facilities affiliated with the regime was shocking but not surprising. There was extensive evidence linking key regime-aligned cronies and Assad family members to the trade,” stated Rose, whose group tracks all publicly recorded Captagon seizures and lab raids.
The discovery of the services, she stated, confirmed “the concrete relationship between Captagon and the former regime.”
Hundreds of factories
The precise variety of factories in Syria stays unclear, however consultants and HTS members estimate that there are seemingly a whole bunch unfold all through the nation.
While neighboring nations have lengthy sought to curb drug trafficking, their affect over Assad was restricted.
Saudi Arabia imposed strict penalties for Captagon trafficking and enhanced border safety, collaborating with different Gulf states to observe smuggling routes. However, these efforts confronted challenges from the advanced networks working throughout Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.
Captagon offered Assad’s regime with leverage to finish his political isolation. In latest years, as a number of Arab states reestablished ties with him, stopping the Captagon commerce was a key demand in talks aimed toward normalizing relations.
In May 2023, Syria was readmitted to the Arab League, the place it had been suspended since 2011 attributable to Assad’s brutal crackdown on protesters.
Syria pledged to clamp down on smuggling, resulting in the formation of a regional safety coordination committee.
Shortly after the summit and in a potential signal of behind-the-scenes trade-offs, Jordan intensified surveillance alongside the Syrian border. Activists and consultants attributed airstrikes on a identified drug kingpin’s dwelling and a suspected Captagon manufacturing unit close to Daraa to Jordan, seemingly with Assad’s consent.
Assad has turned Syria into “the largest Captagon factory in the world,” HTS chief Ahmad al-Sharaa acknowledged in a victory speech at Damascus’s Umayyad Mosque on Dec. 8. “Today, Syria is being cleansed, thanks to the grace of Almighty Allah.”
While Assad and his circle could have been the first beneficiaries, organized crime networks additionally manufactured and smuggled the drug to finance their operations, analysts say.
In addition to dismantling the Captagon commerce, the nation’s transitional authorities ought to “establish programs for economic development that will incentivize Syrians to participate in the country’s formal, licit economic sphere,” stated Rose.
Source: www.dailysabah.com