A video went viral on social media this Wednesday (10) allegedly showing a warehouse in Syria with Captagon, an illicit drug produced in Syria under the government of Bashar al-Assad.
In the video, a voice says that this is “one of the largest Captagon pill manufacturing warehouse facilities.” Stacks of pills are seen on the floor along with drug manufacturing equipment.
See the alleged drug warehouse in Syria:
Maher al-Assad’s Captagon manufacturing factories were seized by the rebels as part of the deterrence operation. The #Rebels did in two days what the countries of the world could not do.. They dismantled the largest network for manufacturing and smuggling #Captagon in the world pic.twitter.com/NLtI56QtNI
— Qusay Noor (@QUSAY_NOOR_) December 11, 2024
The large warehouse would be located at the headquarters of a military division near Damascus, commanded by the deposed president’s brother, Maher al-Assad. THE CNN was unable to check the location immediately.
If confirmed, the discovery would support claims by the United States and other countries that the Assad regime was involved in exporting the drug.
Captagon has become a significant social problem in neighboring Arab nations and has encouraged some of them to negotiate with the former Syrian regime to curb its trafficking.
This is a highly addictive drug, containing mainly amphetamine, which is sometimes described as the “poor man’s cocaine”. Studies in recent years have estimated that the annual drug trade is worth billions of dollars.
It is believed to have become an economic “lifeline” for the Assad regime while it was under US sanctions.
On Sunday (8), after arriving in Damascus, Mohammad al-Jolani, leader of the forces that overthrew the regime, said that Syria had become “the world’s main source of Captagon. But today, Syria is being cleansed by the grace of almighty God.”
Drug production under the Assad regime
According to a Carnegie Endowment report earlier this year, the regime of Bashar al-Assad and its allies had “leveraged the Captagon trafficking as a means of exerting pressure on the Gulf States, notably Saudi Arabia, to reintegrate the Syria to the Arab world.”
The document points out that the production of the drug was “intertwined with the interests of powerful interest groups in Syria, including senior members of the leadership”.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported last year that “the main departure area for Captagon shipments” continued to be Syria and Lebanon, “with destinations in the Gulf Arab countries reached directly by land or sea, or indirectly with shipments from other regions”.
The UNODC also reported that the largest seizures of the drug – around two-thirds of the total – were made in Saudi Arabia. THE CNN has previously reported on the widespread use of the drug in the kingdom.
In 2022, the Saudi ambassador in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, reported that authorities in the kingdom had confiscated 700 million pills smuggled from Lebanon since 2014.
Several studies estimate that the capitagon trade has increased in the last decade. The Middle East Institute reported that in 2021, nearly $6 billion worth of Captagon made in Syria was seized abroad, and in April 2022 alone, 25 million Captagon pills were intercepted in neighboring countries, worth about U.S. $500 million.
US sanctions against Syria
Last year, the US Treasury Department sanctioned several Syrians closely associated with the Assad regime for alleged involvement in the capitagon trade.
“The Syrian regime and its allies have increasingly embraced the production and trafficking of Captagon to generate hard currency, estimated by some to be in the billions of dollars,” the Treasury said.
Among those sanctioned were two cousins of Bashar al-Assad and Khalid Qaddour, a close associate of Maher al-Assad who was described as a “major drug producer and facilitator” of Captagon production in Syria.
In 2023, the Biden administration devised a strategy to combat the Captagon trade, highlighting that the vast majority was “produced by local Syrian factions linked to the Assad regime and Hezbollah” and that “large quantities of these Captagon pills are shipped from ports Syrians like Latakia or smuggled across the borders of Jordan and Iraq.”
Understand the conflict in Syria
The Assad family regime was overthrown in Syria on December 8, after 50 years in power, when rebel groups took over the capital Damascus.
President Bashar al-Assad has fled the country and is in Moscow after gaining asylum, according to a source in Russia.
Syria’s civil war began during the Arab Spring in 2011, when the regime of Bashar al-Assad suppressed a pro-democracy uprising.
The country was plunged into full-scale conflict when a rebel force was formed, known as the Free Syrian Army, to fight government troops.
Furthermore, the Islamic State, a terrorist group, also managed to gain a foothold in the country and came to control 70% of Syrian territory.
Fighting escalated as other regional actors and world powers — from Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United States to Russia — joined in, escalating the country’s war into what some observers described as a “proxy war.”
Russia has allied with Bashar al-Assad’s government to combat the Islamic State and rebels, while the United States has led an international coalition to repel the terrorist group.
After a ceasefire agreement in 2020, the conflict remained largely “dormant”, with minor clashes between the rebels and the Assad regime.
More than 300,000 civilians have been killed in more than a decade of war, according to the UN, and millions of people have been displaced across the region.
Who is the family of Bashar al-Assad, who ruled Syria for more than half a century
This content was originally published in Conflict in Syria: Video indicates the Assad regime’s involvement in drug trafficking on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
Bruce Belcher is a seasoned author with over 5 years of experience in world news. He writes for online news websites and provides in-depth analysis on the world stock market. Bruce is known for his insightful perspectives and commitment to keeping the public informed.
