Amid the crisis in Syria, a recent video shared on social media has highlighted a suspicious warehouse allegedly stocked with captagon, an illicit drug that helped transform the country into a narco-state under the former regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
The large warehouse is reportedly located in the headquarters of a military division near Damascus, under the command of Assad’s brother Maher. However, CNN is unable to verify the location at this time.
A voice in the background of the video claims that it is “one of the largest captagon pill-making warehouse facilities.” Piles of the pills litter the ground alongside drug-production equipment.
If true, the discovery would confirm allegations by the United States and other countries that the Assad regime was actively involved in exporting the drug. Captagon is a serious social problem in neighboring Arab nations, prompting some to enter into talks with the former Syrian regime to stem its trafficking.
It is a highly addictive drug, primarily composed of amphetamines, sometimes described as the “poor man’s cocaine.” Studies in recent years estimate that the annual trade in the drug is worth billions of dollars. It is believed to have become an economic lifeline for the Assad regime as it struggled under U.S. sanctions.
This week, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya reported the discovery of thousands of captagon pills at the Mazzeh air base south of Damascus. The alleged discovery, unconfirmed by CNN, is said to have occurred in an air force intelligence branch, a front for the Assad regime previously accused of drug production and distribution.
Last year, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned several Syrians closely tied to the Assad regime for their alleged involvement in the captagon trade.
“The Syrian regime and its allies have increasingly embraced captagon production and trafficking to generate hard currency, estimated by some to be worth billions of dollars,” the Treasury said.
Those sanctioned included two cousins of Bashar al-Assad, as well as Khalid Qaddour, a close associate of Maher al-Assad who has been described as a “key drug producer and facilitator” in Syria’s captagon production.
The leader of the forces that toppled the Syrian regime, Mohammad al-Jolani, said Syria had become “the world’s leading source of captagon. But today, Syria is purified by the grace of Almighty God.”.”
In 2023, the Biden administration laid out a strategy to combat the captagon trade, claiming that the vast majority of the drug was “produced by local Syrian factions linked to the Assad regime and Hezbollah” and that “large quantities of these captagon pills are shipped from Syrian ports such as Latakia or smuggled across the Jordanian and Iraqi borders.”
Beyond the purely criminal aspect, captagon trafficking has proven to be a tool of geopolitical pressure. According to a report by the Carnegie Institute, the Assad regime and its allies have “exploited captagon trafficking to exert pressure on Gulf states, notably Saudi Arabia, to reintegrate Syria into the Arab world.”
The production of the drug is said to be closely linked to the interests of powerful groups in Syria, including influential members of the hierarchy.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported last year that “the main departure area for captagon shipments” continued to be Syria and Lebanon, with destinations in the Arabian Gulf countries reached either directly by land or sea, or indirectly through shipments through other regions.
The largest seizures of the drug were in Saudi Arabia, accounting for two-thirds of the total, according to UNODC. The country has been facing widespread use of the drug.
Several studies show a dramatic increase in the captagon trade over the past decade. In 2021, the Middle East Institute reported that nearly $6 billion worth of Syrian-made captagon had been seized abroad, and that in April 2022 alone, 25 million captagon pills had been intercepted in neighboring countries, worth about $500 million.
In this climate where drugs seem to be intertwined with political power games, light must be shed on these practices that exploit the suffering of thousands of people for financial and political gain. It is imperative for the international community to come together to end this scourge and build a healthier future for the affected populations.