On Syria’s ruins, a drug empire thrives

Built on the ashes of 10 years of battle in Syria, an unlawful drug trade run by highly effective associates and family of President Bashar Assad has grown right into a multibillion-dollar operation, eclipsing Syria’s authorized exports and turning the nation into the world’s latest narcostate.
Its flagship product is captagon, an unlawful, addictive amphetamine widespread in Saudi Arabia and different Arab states. Its operations stretch throughout Syria, together with workshops that manufacture the tablets, packing vegetation the place they’re hid for export and smuggling networks to spirit them to markets overseas.
An investigation by The New York Times discovered that a lot of the manufacturing and distribution is overseen by the 4th Armored Division of the Syrian military, an elite unit commanded by Maher Assad, the president’s youthful brother and one in all Syria’s strongest males.
Major gamers additionally embrace businessmen with shut ties to the federal government, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and different members of the president’s prolonged household, whose final title ensures safety for unlawful actions, in keeping with the Times investigation, which is predicated on info from legislation enforcement officers in 10 international locations and dozens of interviews with worldwide and regional drug consultants, Syrians with information of the drug commerce and present and former United States officers.
The drug commerce emerged within the ruins of a decade of battle, which shattered Syria’s financial system, lowered most of its individuals to poverty and left members of Syria’s navy, political and enterprise elite in search of new methods to earn arduous forex and circumvent US financial sanctions.
Illicit velocity is now the nation’s most dear export, far surpassing its authorized merchandise, in keeping with a database compiled by the Times of worldwide captagon busts.
In current years, authorities in Greece, Italy, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere have seized lots of of hundreds of thousands of tablets, most of them originating from one government-controlled port in Syria, some in hauls whose avenue worth may exceed $1 billion, in keeping with legislation enforcement officers.
Officials in Italy discovered 84 million tablets hidden in enormous rolls of paper and metallic gears final yr. Malaysian officers found greater than 94 million tablets sealed inside rubber trolley wheels in March.
These seizures in all probability symbolize solely a fraction of the medication shipped, drug consultants say. But they supply a window into the scope of the commerce, suggesting that the trade has exploded lately.
More than 250 million captagon tablets have been seized throughout the globe to date this yr, greater than 18 instances the quantity captured simply 4 years in the past.
Even extra regarding to governments within the area, the Syrian community constructed to smuggle captagon has begun to maneuver extra harmful medication, comparable to crystal meth, regional safety officers say.
The largest impediment in combating the commerce, officers stated, is that it has the backing of a state that has little cause to assist shut it down.
A Syrian soldier shows Captagon tablets, in rural Damascus, Syria. Syrian authorities had seized over 500 kilograms of amphetamine tablets often called Captagon smuggled in pasta and headed for Saudi Arabia. (Photo: AP)
The Rise of a Narcostate
Captagon was initially manufactured by a German pharmaceutical firm as a stimulant to deal with consideration deficit dysfunction and narcolepsy. In the Eighties, customers in Saudi Arabia and different Persian Gulf states began taking it recreationally to get an vitality increase, banish worry and keep awake to check for exams, work, celebration or drive lengthy distances.
Its white tablets have been stamped with two crescents, giving it the Arabic nickname “abu hilalain,” or “the one with two moons.”
After it was discovered to be addictive, it was banned internationally within the late Eighties. But to proceed feeding the gulf market, illicit captagon manufacturing took off, together with in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, a hub of cannabis manufacturing and a stronghold of Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group that’s now a part of Lebanon’s authorities.
Although the pharmaceutical Captagon contained the amphetamine fenethylline, the illicit model offered in the present day, also known as “captagon” with a lowercase c, normally accommodates a mixture of amphetamines, caffeine and varied fillers. Cheap variations retail for lower than a greenback a tablet in Syria, whereas higher-quality tablets can promote for $14 or extra apiece in Saudi Arabia.
After the Syrian battle broke out, smugglers took benefit of the chaos to promote the drug to fighters on all sides, who took it to bolster their braveness in battle. Enterprising Syrians, working with native pharmacists and equipment from disused pharmaceutical factories, started making it.
Captagon labs are scattered throughout government-held elements of Syria, in keeping with Syrians in areas the place the medication are produced — in territory managed by Hezbollah close to the Lebanese border; exterior the capital, Damascus; and across the Mediterranean port metropolis of Latakia.
The safety bureau of the 4th Division, headed by Maj. Gen. Ghassan Bilal, supplies a lot of the community’s nervous system. According to regional safety officers and a former Syrian navy officer, the bureau’s troops defend most of the factories and ease the motion of medicine to Syria’s borders and the port.
“The division’s presence in the region is dangerous,” stated Col. Hassan Alqudah, head of the narcotics division for Jordan’s Public Security Directorate. “Captagon factories are present in the 4th Division’s areas of control and under their protection.”
Maher Assad and Bilal couldn’t be reached for remark. Officials from the Syrian Information Ministry and its diplomatic mission in Vienna didn’t reply to requests for remark. The chief of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, has denied that his group has something to do with captagon.
Other distinguished Syrians take part within the enterprise.
A key participant close to Damascus is Amer Khiti, a businessman whose rise is emblematic of Syria’s new wartime enterprise class, in keeping with former U.S. officers and Syrians with information of the drug commerce.
Originally a modest livestock dealer, Khiti turned a smuggler throughout the battle, spiriting meals and different items between Damascus and the rebel-held suburbs with the assist of the state, in keeping with Sami Adel, an activist from Khiti’s hometown who has tracked his profession.
As the rebels have been routed from the suburbs, he purchased up actual property there and invested in packaging amenities which might be used for smuggling.
Another wartime rags-to-riches determine is Khodr Taha, a onetime poultry service provider who oversees 4th Division checkpoints throughout the nation, the place he facilitates the motion of captagon, in keeping with regional safety officers and Syrians with information of the drug commerce.
Khiti didn’t reply to requests for remark and efforts to achieve Taha by firms he owns have been unsuccessful.
Captagon has in all probability change into Syria’s most essential supply of overseas forex, in keeping with Jihad Yazigi, editor of The Syria Report, a publication that tracks Syria’s financial system.
“That does not mean that the revenues earned are going back into the economy,” he stated. “They are mostly being invested in the bank accounts of smugglers and warlords.”
Spilling Into Jordan
Although officers in Europe wrestle to determine smugglers, Jordan, one of many United States’ closest companions within the Middle East, sits on the entrance strains of a regional drug battle.
“Jordan is the gateway to the gulf,” Brig. Gen. Ahmad al-Sarhan, commander of a military unit alongside Jordan’s border with Syria, stated throughout a go to to the world.
Overlooking a deep valley with views of Syria, al-Sarhan and his males detailed Syrian smugglers’ tips to deliver medication into Jordan: They launch crossing makes an attempt at a number of spots. They connect medication to drones and fly them throughout. They load medication onto donkeys skilled to cross by themselves.
Sometimes the smugglers cease by Syrian military posts earlier than approaching the border.
“There is clear involvement,” al-Sarhan stated.
The drug commerce worries Jordanian officers for a lot of causes.
The portions are growing. The variety of captagon tablets seized in Jordan this yr is sort of double the quantity seized in 2020, in keeping with Alqudah, head of the narcotics division.
Although Jordan was initially only a pathway to Saudi Arabia, as a lot as one-fifth of the medication smuggled in from Syria are actually consumed in Jordan, he estimated. The elevated provide has lowered the worth, making it straightforward for college students to change into addicted.
Even extra worrying, he stated, is the rising amount of crystal meth coming into Jordan from Syria, which poses a better risk. As of October, Jordan had seized 132 kilos of it this yr, up from 44 kilos the yr earlier than.
“We are now in a dangerous stage because we can’t go back,” stated Dr. Morad al-Ayasrah, a Jordanian psychiatrist who treats drug addicts. “We are going forward and the drugs are increasing.”