Following its ousting of the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria final week, the opposition alliance led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) invited worldwide reporters to witness huge stockpiles and clandestine factories of the illicit drug Captagon.
Over the previous decade, the al-Assad authorities has been accused of being the principal purveyor of Captagon, a extremely addictive, amphetamine-like capsule common in rich Gulf nations, together with Saudi Arabia.
The income propped up state funds, battered by sanctions and conflict, to the purpose that Syria has been described as a “narco-state”.
Led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, beforehand generally known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani, HTS and Syria’s new administration seem decided to make it clear they don’t approve of Syria’s drug commerce.
“HTS and Julani up to now have sought to place distance between this new transitional authorities and the Captagon commerce,” Caroline Rose, an knowledgeable on Syrian drug trafficking on the New Traces Institute, instructed Al Jazeera.
“That is why we’ve seen a number of laboratory and warehouse raids on regime-aligned amenities in addition to Julani referring to the regime’s illicit historical past of Captagon manufacturing. They could not be capable of rein in all low-scale manufacturing and cross-border trafficking, however there can be a method to crack down on industrial-scale manufacturing and encourage Syrians to take part within the formal, licit financial system.”
With al-Assad gone, what occurs to the Captagon enterprise now?
What’s the historical past of Captagon manufacturing?
Captagon was the model title for fenethylline, initially developed by German pharmaceutical agency Degussa within the Sixties to deal with narcolepsy and attention-deficit/hyperactivity dysfunction (ADHD).
Its circulation was restricted by the United Nations in 1986 due to its undesirable unwanted effects, together with nervousness and melancholy, and its addictive potential, though sure medical makes use of are nonetheless allowed.
By then, nonetheless, Captagon had already picked up a following as a leisure drug within the Center East, because it additionally leaves customers feeling assured and alert together with a sensation of euphoria.
In the course of the Chilly Struggle, communist Bulgaria was the centre of Captagon manufacturing.
Bulgaria’s highly effective secret service, the DS (Committee for State Safety), had a sideline in smuggling by way of the state-owned import-export firm Kintex: operating weapons to African conflict zones, heroin into Europe and Captagon to the Center East.
Captagon initially survived communism’s eventual collapse as out-of-work spies muscled in on the felony underworld.
However Bulgarian authorities lastly dismantled the fenethylline factories within the early 2000s because the nation joined the European Union, and manufacturing migrated from the Balkans to the Center East.
How did Captagon manufacturing take off in Syria?
As soon as residence to a longtime prescription drugs trade, Syria turned the world’s largest producer of Captagon.
Unrest towards al-Assad, whose household dominated since seizing energy in a coup d’etat in 1970, descended right into a massacre in 2011, with armed teams taking territory.
At first, it was some armed teams cooking Captagon however, as the federal government clawed again territory with the help of its allies, it additionally took management of smuggling routes and manufacturing amenities.
Based on customs officers, shipments have been disguised as rubber tyres, metal cogwheels, industrial paper rolls, sofas and even plastic fruit, routed by Europe and Africa to disguise their origin earlier than reaching the Gulf.
The worth of intercepted shipments was estimated at $5.7bn in 2021, a number of occasions larger than Syria’s reliable exports, price a mere $860m in 2020.
Captagon turned Syria’s most dear export, offering billions in revenue for “regime-aligned networks and people … both inside the management of the regime’s safety equipment, Syria’s business sector and enterprise elite, and/or family members of Bashar al-Assad”, in response to Rose.
Maher al-Assad, Bashar’s brother and commander of the Fourth Division, has been recognized as a key participant, taking advantage of defending shipments by Latakia, a former Assad stronghold.
Gang leaders and businessmen, too, have been reportedly allowed to run smuggling operations in alternate for his or her loyalty.
Regardless of the al-Assad Captagon commerce, final yr Syria was welcomed back into the Arab League, having been expelled for its massacres of protesters, possibly on the understanding that narco-traffic can be reined in.
How harmful is Captagon?
Upon swallowing, fenethylline metabolises into amphetamine and theophylline, a weaker stimulant just like caffeine. The general impact is stronger than amphetamine alone, however the slower onset makes it barely much less addictive, in addition to being softer on blood strain.
Nonetheless, most of what passes for Captagon these days is counterfeit – and way more harmful.
“There was no fenethylline, the unique formulation, in Captagon tablets for years,” famous Andrew Cunningham of the EU Medication Company.
“The outcomes of forensic evaluation present that they include primarily amphetamine, and have executed for years.”
Amphetamine, and particularly methamphetamine, generally generally known as crystal meth, is considerably extra hazardous to the human physique than fenethylline. In 2020, the Worldwide Narcotics Management Board reported that Syria imported 50 tonnes of pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient for meth manufacturing.
Is that this the tip of the Captagon commerce?
It’s extremely unlikely.
At a Might 1, 2023, assembly of Arab international ministers in Amman, Syria agreed to cooperate with Jordan and Iraq to identify sources of drug production and smuggling, in response to Jordan’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs.
Per week later, a high-profile Syrian drug smuggler and his household have been killed in an air raid, attributed to Jordan, in southern Syria.
However these strikes, and the autumn of al-Assad, don’t imply the urge for food for Captagon is gone, relatively the commerce will now shift, in response to Rose.
“Traffickers will search out new transit and manufacturing websites with low dangers … a lot of them nearer to vacation spot markets within the Gulf or ports that may simply entry them.”
That is what is called the “balloon impact”. Authorities suppress the drug enterprise in a single place, so it reappears some other place – as an illustration, the transfer from Bulgaria to Syria within the 2000s.
The place will Captagon manufacturing transfer to subsequent?
It’s too early to say, however clandestine factories have already been uncovered as far afield as Sudan and Germany.
“I feel that Iraq, Turkiye, Lebanon, Egypt, Libya, Kuwait and even nations within the EU are suited to inherit the Captagon commerce,” Rose stated.
“We’ve already seen a spillover of trafficking and manufacturing past Syria within the final two to a few years, as felony networks have sought to diversify their operations.”
Specialists recommend the demand might be stuffed by methamphetamine, a substantial amount of which reportedly already comes from Iran and Afghanistan.
Iraq has change into a drug hub lately because the variety of meth customers there skyrockets, in response to stories.
Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley has been a supply of heroin and cannabis for practically a century and flourished throughout the 1975-1990 civil conflict, throughout which Syrian troops occupied Bekaa and reportedly levied a “tax” on each kilo of hash or heroin passing by.
Since then, the identical household clans buying and selling hash in Bekaa have expanded their companies to Captagon, typically working intently with Syrian officers.
Extra reporting by Radwan Mortada