Wall Street Journal: The fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria upsets the balance of the global Captagon trade

The fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria has brought down the Middle East’s most lucrative drug trafficking network, exposing the former regime’s role in manufacturing and smuggling Captagon pills that fueled wars and social crises across the region.

Captagon, a methamphetamine-like drug that has been produced in Syrian laboratories for years, has helped the Assad regime amass vast fortunes and offset the effects of tough international sanctions, while allowing its allies, such as the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, to profit from its trade.

Opposition fighters have released videos of massive Captagon manufacturing and smuggling facilities inside government air bases and other sites linked to senior officials in the former regime days after Assad was ousted in a lightning offensive last week.

Among the sites where the opposition has discovered alleged Captagon factories and warehouses are the Mezzeh air base in Damascus, a car trading company in the Assad family’s hometown of Latakia, and a former potato chip factory in Douma near the capital believed to be linked to the former president’s brother.

Video footage from opposition fighters and journalists invited to document the sites, including Reuters and Channel 4 News , showed thousands of Captagon pills hidden in fake fruit, ceramic mosaics and electrical equipment. The rebels said they had destroyed at least some of the stored Captagon.

Captagon produced in Syria has helped stimulate demand for the drug throughout the Middle East, especially in Saudi Arabia, creating international tension between Syria and its neighbors.

Last October, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on three people for their involvement in the production and smuggling of Captagon on behalf of the Assad regime. One of the men sanctioned owned a factory in Syria that allegedly served as a front for sending more than $1.5 billion worth of pills to Europe, hidden in rolls of industrial paper.

For its part, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist rebel group that led the lightning offensive that toppled Assad, has attacked the Captagon trade as an example of the moral and financial corruption of the former regime.

In a victory speech delivered at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus on Friday, the group’s leader, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, said that Assad “turned Syria into the largest Captagon factory in the world, and today, Syria is being cleansed of them, thanks be to God Almighty.”

Dismantling Assad’s Captagon empire would strain the resources of Hezbollah, which, according to American and Arab security officials, has facilitated smuggling operations in areas under its control and secured the homes of drug dealers in southern Syria.

Economic activities in Syria, such as taxation and smuggling, including Captagon, have helped Hezbollah mitigate the impact of international sanctions—which also affect its patron, Iran—and become more financially sustainable.

“Captagon has allowed Hezbollah to diversify its sources of revenue,” says Joseph Daher, a visiting professor at the University of Lausanne and author of a book on Hezbollah’s political economy.

The extent of Hezbollah's profits from the Captagon trade is unknown, but the group is already facing enormous financial pressure after Israel's devastating military campaign against its stronghold in southern Lebanon, which destroyed entire villages along the border.

“Iraq is at risk of becoming an increasingly important node in the drug trafficking network extending across the Near and Middle East,” the office said.

Captagon was also smuggled through Jordan to the Gulf, and was sent via Lebanon to southern Europe, which has long been a hub for Captagon transport to the Arabian Peninsula.

Among the major seizures in southern Europe, Italian police seized $1 billion worth of Captagon pills in 2020, and Dutch and German authorities dismantled Captagon production laboratories within their countries.

“Ultimately, when we look at some of these criminal actors, they have already started to diversify their operations,” Rose said.

Source: Wall Street Journal