What Assad’s overthrow revealed about Syrian regime’s Captagon empire

Analysis What Assad’s overthrow revealed about Syrian regime’s Captagon empire
A cheaply made form of amphetamine, Captagon has been flooding into countries of the Middle East for more than a decade, causing social harm on an unprecedented scale. (AFP)
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Updated 14 December 2024
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What Assad’s overthrow revealed about Syrian regime’s Captagon empire

What Assad’s overthrow revealed about Syrian regime’s Captagon empire
  • Scale of illicit trade revealed as victorious rebels and journalists gain access to manufacturing and storage sites
  • Expert says there were signs of decentralization of Captagon production even before the Assad regime’s overthrow

LONDON: For more than a decade, the illegal drug Captagon has been mass produced in Syria, in laboratories either run by or with the blessing of a regime hard hit by Western sanctions and desperate to generate revenue.

The scale of the trade, targeted mainly at young people in the Gulf states, particularly Saudi Arabia, was revealed last year in an Arab News expose produced in collaboration with the New Lines Institute.

A cheaply made form of amphetamine, Captagon has been flooding into countries of the Middle East for more than a decade, causing social harm on an unprecedented scale.

Embossed with its distinctive twin half moons logo, which gives the drug its Arabic street name, “Abu Hilalain,” or Father of the Two Crescents, the pills are easy to make, readily available, and relatively cheap to buy.

On Dec. 4, the New Lines Institute in Washington launched a unique interactive online tool designed to help researchers and global law enforcement agencies research, track, and understand the scale and complexities of the trade.

Just days after the launch of the project, the Syrian regime, which had been locked in a grinding civil war with armed opposition groups for almost 14 years, suddenly collapsed.

In the early hours of Sunday, Dec. 8, President Bashar Assad and his family fled to Moscow, where their Russian allies granted them asylum.




The ousted president, HTS leader Abu Mohammed Al-Golani said, had caused the country to become “a major Captagon factory in the world, and today Syria is being cleansed of it.” (AFP)

Since then, multiple Captagon laboratories have been overrun in areas formerly controlled by the Syrian government, with raw materials, machinery, packaging and countless thousands of pills found abandoned in haste.

But no one should think for one moment that the collapse of the Assad regime means the end of the curse of Captagon, according to Caroline Rose, director of the Strategic Blind Spots Portfolio at the New Lines Institute.

“We are going to see a shift in the trade now that Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham and a lot of communities in Syria have started to disassemble Captagon production sites and incinerate Captagon pills,” she told Arab News.

In his victory speech at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus on Monday, HTS leader Abu Mohammed Al-Golani made a specific point of condemning the drug and Assad’s part in its production.

The ousted president, he said, had caused the country to become “a major Captagon factory in the world, and today Syria is being cleansed of it.”

It is “very clear that if you are a Captagon manufacturer who did not flee with the regime, you are now in trouble, Rose said.

“But I think what we’re going to see now is overspill, what people often call the ‘balloon effect.’ Production is being squeezed inside Syria, but we are going to see the emergence of larger-scale Captagon production facilities in a few countries where alarm bells have already been ringing.”

Authorities across the region have frequently reported seizures of the pills, intercepted at ports, airports, and border crossings, in an ongoing battle of wits with smugglers resorting to increasingly ingenious methods.

The New Lines Institute’s Captagon Trade Project, the product of years of research, is the first time that information about all reported global seizures of the drug, showing the sheer scale of the trade, can be accessed in one place.

And clues to the changing profile of the Captagon trade in the months leading up the regime’s collapse can be found in the project’s data, which reveal that production facilities have been popping up in countries including Iraq, Lebanon and Turkiye.

In Lebanon, the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, under intense pressure from Israel, “has an incentive to build up its own financial reserves, and Captagon is an easy way to do that,” Rose said.

A couple of Captagon labs were found earlier this year in Turkiye, a country where “we had not seen labs in a very long time.” Production facilities have even been found as far away as Europe, in Germany and the Netherlands.

In all these cases, it was certain that governments were not involved in the trade, according to Rose. “Syria was a very interesting and rare case where we did see the involvement of so many high-level officials in the regime, implicated in Captagon production and trafficking,” she said.

While Assad himself carefully distanced himself from the trade, his brother Maher was heavily implicated with production and smuggling efforts in his role as commander of the Fourth Armored Division, a military unit whose primary mission was to protect the Syrian regime from internal and external threats.




Authorities across the region have frequently reported seizures of the pills, intercepted at ports, airports. (AFP)

Quite where he is now remains uncertain.

“I have heard that Maher and his Fourth Division commanders made their way through Iraq to Iran and are now in Tehran,” Rose said.

“However, other reports say HTS has found and detained him. That’s not confirmed yet. But if Maher is still there, it’s likely that a lot of members of the regime’s Captagon organization are also still in Syria.”

Either way, there is now “an assumption that this is the end of Captagon, but it’s not. We need to keep in mind that over the past two years Captagon production had already started to trickle outside of Syria.

“For the longest time, regime-held Syria was the hub of Captagon production. Then we started to see labs being seized in southern and northern Iraq and even in Kuwait, which is interesting and makes sense. They were starting to build this bridge through Iraq to get closer to destination markets in the Gulf.”

 


At the same time, there were signs that the regime was cracking down on the Captagon trade — or, rather, pretending to — as revealed by the comprehensive seizure data in New Lines Institute’s online mapping tool.

“We saw the regime’s incentive to normalize relations with the Gulf states, and recognition that it needed to be seen to be cracking down on this trade, while quietly still reaping the economic benefits,” Rose said.

“For that reason, we think, in the past year we have seen the supply of Captagon — or, at least, what was seized — decrease dramatically, especially in Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which were the two targets for normalization discussions for the regime.

“We have cause to believe that the flow of Captagon was actually halted by the regime. They were stepping on the hose to create the appearance that they had stopped Captagon production, in the hope that it would bring the Gulf states to the table.

 

 




While Assad himself carefully distanced himself from the trade, his brother Maher was heavily implicated. (AFP)

“In fact, as we’ve seen with the finds in Syria over the past few days, they seem to have been stockpiling the drug. Most likely later on they would have flooded the market.”

Sandwiched between Syria and Saudi Arabia, Jordan has long borne the brunt of smuggling attempts orchestrated by the Syrian military and Iran-backed militias operating in the south of Syria. It has, for many years, been a key battleground in the fight to stem the tide of the drug.

Over the past few months, however, there have been telltale signs of changes in the nature of attempts to smuggle Captagon through Jordan to Saudi Arabia and beyond. “Unusually, we’ve not seen any seizures in Jordan since early November,” Rose said.

“Typically, around this time of the year we would see an uptick in Captagon there, not only in smuggling incidents, but also in clashes along the border, because that’s when the wintry conditions start to set in, creating conditions that make it perfect for a smuggler to bypass surveillance systems.”

In Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, the most recent recorded seizure was on Dec. 7 at the Al-Wadiah border crossing with Yemen. The two before that were both on Nov. 30, at the checkpoint on the King Fahd Causeway to Bahrain and on the other side of the country at the Port of Duba on the Red Sea.

“One was about 200,000 pills, the other one 280,000, so nothing major,” Rose said. “What we’ve noticed is that the number of seizures is increasing, but the sizes of the consignments are dwindling.”

In other words, smugglers are making more frequent runs, but with smaller batches of pills, which implies smaller players smuggling overland, rather than major, connected players shipping in bulk via sea.




There is now “an assumption that this is the end of Captagon, but it’s not,” said Caroline Rose. (AFP)

Whatever HTS chief Al-Golani might say, or even intend, Syria is not yet free of Captagon, according to Rose. “I am positive that there are actors who are picking up a few thousand pills and peddling them on the street,” she said.

“This is still a very lucrative trade. Syria is not out of the woods economically, and there will be many people who will want to try to make a profit.”

Made for about $1 and typically sold for 15 times as much, Captagon is an exceptionally profitable product, which is estimated to have earned the Syrian regime more than $2 billion per year.

“And at the end of the day, old habits die hard,” Rose said.

“For a lot of these individuals, not necessarily high-level regime officials, this has been their way of life for years, and so it’s going to be very difficult for any new government in Syria to convince these criminal actors to give up this source of revenue.”


Lawyers denounce ‘fabricated’ Tunisia trial of opposition

Lawyers denounce ‘fabricated’ Tunisia trial of opposition
Updated 23 sec ago
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Lawyers denounce ‘fabricated’ Tunisia trial of opposition

Lawyers denounce ‘fabricated’ Tunisia trial of opposition
  • Among those sentenced were well-known opposition figures, lawyers and business people. Some have already been in prison for two years while others are in exile or still free

TUNIS: Lawyers and relatives on Monday denounced the hefty sentences handed down to Tunisian opposition figures in last week’s mass trial as “fabricated” and “unfounded,” and said they will appeal.
A court in Tunis in the early hours of Saturday handed down jail terms of up to 66 years to around 40 defendants, including vocal critics of President Kais Saied.
They were accused of “conspiracy against state security” and “belonging to a terrorist group” among other charges, according to their lawyers.
Defense lawyer Samir Dilou said on Monday the trial was “unprecedented in Tunisia” as “it handed the defendants a total of 892 years in prison.”
He said key evidence in the case was still missing, as lawyers had complained that they did not have full access to the case file.
“They still haven’t told us how the defendants conspired against the state,” Dilou told journalists.
He said an appeal could be filed as early as Tuesday.
Among those sentenced were well-known opposition figures, lawyers and business people. Some have already been in prison for two years while others are in exile or still free.
Several were arrested in February 2023, after which Saied labelled them “terrorists.”
Abdennasser Mehri, another defense lawyer, called the trial a “blatant violation of the law.”
“It’s a fabricated, unfounded case with a plan set in advance,” he said. “The scales of justice are broken.”
Dilou said Ahmed Souab, also a defense lawyer, was arrested early Monday after police raided his home.
Local media said he was accused of “threatening to commit terrorist crimes” in a statement made on Saturday after the trial, criticizing political pressure judges were allegedly under.
Online videos showed Souab saying that “knives are not on the necks of detainees, but on the neck of the judge issuing the ruling.”
Souab, a former judge, is expected to remain in detention “for five days and he won’t be allowed to communicate with his lawyers for 48 hours,” Dilou told AFP.
Human Rights Watch said on Saturday the court “did not give even a semblance of a fair trial” to the defendants.
Defense lawyer Dalila Msaddek said the trial was used “to lump together everyone they wanted to get rid of.”
Politicians Issam Chebbi and Jawhar Ben Mbarek of the opposition National Salvation Front coalition, as well as lawyer Ridha BelHajj and activist Chaima Issa, were sentenced to 18 years behind bars.
Activist Khayam Turki was handed a 48-year term and businessman Kamel Eltaief received the harshest penalty — 66 years in prison, according to lawyers.
Some defendants are abroad and were tried in absentia, like French intellectual Bernard Henri-Levy who received a 33-year jail term, lawyers said.
Since Saied launched a power grab in the summer of 2021 and assumed total control, rights advocates and opposition figures have decried a rollback of freedoms in the North African country where the 2011 Arab Spring began.
 

 


RSF shelling kills over 30 in besieged Sudanese city

RSF shelling kills over 30 in besieged Sudanese city
Updated 28 min 3 sec ago
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RSF shelling kills over 30 in besieged Sudanese city

RSF shelling kills over 30 in besieged Sudanese city
  • Sunday’s attack involved ‘heavy artillery shelling’ and targeted El-Fasher’s residential neighborhoods

PORT SUDAN: Paramilitary shelling of Sudan’s besieged city of El-Fasher, in the western region of Darfur, has killed more than 30 civilians and wounded dozens more, activists said on Monday.

The attack, which took place on Sunday, involved “heavy artillery shelling” and targeted the city’s residential neighborhoods, said the local resistance committee, one of hundreds of volunteer groups coordinating aid across Sudan.

Since April 2023, the war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has killed tens of thousands, uprooted 13 million, and created what the UN describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

El-Fasher, the state capital of North Darfur, remains the last major city in the vast Darfur region that the paramilitary group has not conquered.

Last week, the RSF launched a renewed offensive on the city and two nearby displacement camps — Zamzam and Abu Shouk — killing more than 400 people and displacing some 400,000, according to the UN.

In a bloody ground offensive, the RSF took control of Zamzam camp, where aid workers say up to 1 million people were sheltering.

According to the UN, most of the displaced fled just north, to El-Fasher city itself, or 60 km west to the small town of Tawila.

By Thursday, more than 150,000 people had arrived in El-Fasher, while another 180,000 had fled to Tawila, the UN’s migration agency has said.

Humanitarian aid is nearly nonexistent in both famine-threatened towns.

On Monday, the UN’s humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, described the situation in the region as “horrifying.”

He said he had spoken by phone with army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his rival paramilitary commander Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, who committed to giving “full access to get aid in.”

Throughout the war, both the army and the RSF have been accused of using starvation as a weapon of war against civilians.

International aid agencies have long warned that a full-scale RSF assault on El-Fasher could lead to devastating urban warfare and a new wave of mass displacement.

UNICEF has described the situation as “hell on earth” for at least 825,000 children trapped in and around El-Fasher.

Following the army’s recapture of the capital Khartoum last month, the RSF has intensified efforts to seize El-Fasher, a strategic target for the paramilitary to consolidate its hold on Darfur.

The RSF already controls nearly all of the vast region, about the size of France, and parts of the south. 

The army holds the country’s center, east, and north.

However, the UN warned of a catastrophic humanitarian situation as the fighting escalated.

“The humanitarian community in Sudan is facing critical and intensifying operational challenges in North Darfur,” Clementine Nkweta-Salami, the UN’s Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, said on Sunday.

She added that “despite repeated appeals, humanitarian access to El-Fasher and surrounding areas remains dangerously restricted,” warning that the lack of access was increasing the vulnerability of hundreds of thousands of people.”

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders has called for aid airdrops into the city in the face of access restrictions.


Saudi, Middle East, global leaders offer condolences following Pope Francis’ death

Saudi, Middle East, global leaders offer condolences following Pope Francis’ death
Updated 21 April 2025
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Saudi, Middle East, global leaders offer condolences following Pope Francis’ death

Saudi, Middle East, global leaders offer condolences following Pope Francis’ death
  • Countries across the region sent their condolences to the Vatican City

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent cables of condolences on the death of Pope Francis on Monday, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The Muslim World League secretary-general Dr. Mohammed bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa, who met the Pope at the Vatican in December 2024, told Arab News that their friendship had strengthened cooperation between the League and the Vatican in “shared goals ... championing just humanitarian causes and promoting the values ​​of coexistence and global peace, in the face of the ideas and practices of religious and civilizational conflict and strife.”

The Pope was a man of “wisdom, just stances, and positive contributions, particularly to the Islamic world and its causes,” Al-Issa said.

The Muslim Council of Elders, headed by Egypt’s Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayyeb, also mourned Pope Francis’ passing and extended their condolences to “the leaders of the Catholic Church, our Christian brethren, and all advocates of peace and coexistence worldwide.”

Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmed co-authored the historic Document on Human Fraternity, widely regarded as one of the most significant documents in modern human history.

“Pope Francis devoted his life to serving humanity and advancing the values of dialogue, tolerance, coexistence, peace, and human fraternity while he also tirelessly supported the vulnerable, needy, refugees, and the displaced, embodying a singular example of compassion and becoming a historic religious figure whose enduring humanitarian legacy will inspire future generations,” the group said in a statement on X.

Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi also offered his condolences following the death of Pope Francis on Monday.

“Pope Francis was a voice of peace, love and compassion,” said El-Sisi.

Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, President of the UAE, said Francis dedicated his life to promoting the principles of peaceful coexistence and understanding.

“I extend my deepest condolences to Catholics around the world on the passing of Pope Francis, who dedicated his life to promoting the principles of peaceful coexistence and understanding. May he rest in peace,” said Sheikh Mohamed via statment on X.

Prime minister of UAE Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum said Pope Francis was a great leader whose compassion and commitment to peace touched countless lives.

In a statement on X, Sheikh Mohammed said “his legacy of humility and interfaith unity will continue to inspire many communities around the world.”

Jordan’s King Abdullah II, on X, meanwhile said: “Deepest condolences to our Christian brothers and sisters around the world. Pope Francis was admired by all as the Pope of the People. He brought people together, leading with kindness, humility, and compassion. His legacy will live on in his good deeds and teachings.”

Lebanon’s Christian President Joseph Aoun mourned the death on Monday of Pope Francis, a “dear friend and strong supporter” of the crisis-hit multi-confessional country.

“We will never forget his repeated calls to protect Lebanon and preserve its identity and diversity,” Aoun – the Arab world’s only Christian president – said in a statement on the presidency’s X account, calling Francis’s death “a loss for all humanity, for he was a powerful voice for justice and peace” who called for “dialogue between religions and cultures”.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas meanwhile paid tribute to Pope Francis, calling him a “faithful friend of the Palestinian people,” the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Palestinian Christians in Gaza on Monday mourned the death of the Pope, who had maintained close and consistent video contact with the small Christian community in the territory throughout the ongoing war.

Since the outbreak of fighting between Israel and Hamas, Francis had regularly called Gaza’s Christians, often several times a week, offering prayers, encouragement, and solidarity.

“Today, we lost a faithful friend of the Palestinian people and their legitimate rights,” Abbas said, noting that Pope Francis “recognized the Palestinian state and authorized the Palestinian flag to be raised in the Vatican.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed Pope Francis for his efforts to further dialogue between different faiths.

Iran also offered its condolonces. Israeli President Isaac Herzog praised the deceased pope on Monday as “a man of deep faith and boundless compassion.”

Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto on Monday expressed condolences over the death of Pope Francis.

“The Pope’s message of simplicity, pluralism, favoring the poor and caring for others will always be an example for all of us,” the president said in an Instagram post.

Grief-stricken Argentines massed at Buenos Aires Cathedral early Monday to collectively mourn their late pontiff, compatriot and hero, Pope Francis.

In his final years, Francis had often tussled with political leaders, including Argentina’s current libertarian president, Javier Milei.

But there was a rare sense of political unity Monday in what is still a deeply polarized nation, with even Milei too acknowledging that his political differences with the late pontiff “today seem minor,” as he prepared to decree seven days of national mourning.

GALLERY: Pope Francis: The world mourns

Pope Francis, the first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church died after suffering from pneumonia.

In 2019, Pope Francis was the first pontiff to lead a mass in the Middle East, more specifically the UAE.  

Francis charted new relations with the Muslim world by visiting the Arabian Peninsula and Iraq.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected pope on March 13, 2013, surprising many Church watchers who had seen the Argentine cleric, known for his concern for the poor, as an outsider.

He sought to project simplicity into the grand role and never took possession of the ornate papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace used by his predecessors, saying he preferred to live in a community setting for his “psychological health.”


Gaza civil defense describes medic killings as ‘summary executions’

Gaza civil defense describes medic killings as ‘summary executions’
Updated 21 April 2025
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Gaza civil defense describes medic killings as ‘summary executions’

Gaza civil defense describes medic killings as ‘summary executions’
  • Israel also accused of seeking to ‘circumvent’ its obligations under international law

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Gaza’s civil defense agency on Monday accused the Israeli military of carrying out “summary executions” in the killing of 15 rescue workers last month, rejecting the findings of an internal probe by the army.

“The video filmed by one of the paramedics proves that the Israeli occupation’s narrative is false and demonstrates that it carried out summary executions,” Mohammed Al-Mughair, a civil defense official, said, a day after an Israeli army probe denied any execution-style killings. He also accused Israel of seeking to “circumvent” its obligations under international law.

The Palestine Red Crescent also rejected the findings of an Israeli military investigation that blamed operational failures for the killing of 15 Gaza emergency service workers, denouncing the report as “full of lies.”

“The report is full of lies. It is invalid and unacceptable, as it justifies the killing and shifts responsibility to a personal error in the field command when the truth is quite different,” Nebal Farsakh, spokesperson for the Red Crescent, said.


Israeli opposition leader fears political violence over Shin Bet affair

Israeli opposition leader fears political violence over Shin Bet affair
Updated 21 April 2025
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Israeli opposition leader fears political violence over Shin Bet affair

Israeli opposition leader fears political violence over Shin Bet affair
  • The supreme court froze the government’s initial attempt to sack Bar, and earlier this month it gave the cabinet and the attorney general’s office until the end of the just concluded Passover holiday to work out a compromise

TEL AVIV: Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said he feared an outbreak of political violence connected to what he called a campaign of hate against the country’s internal security chief, whom the government has moved to sack.
“The red line has been crossed. If we don’t stop this, there will be a political murder here, maybe more than one. Jews will kill jews,” Lapid said at a press conference in Tel Aviv, adding that “the most serious threats are directed at the head of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar.”
Bar’s dismissal as head of the internal security agency has been challenged in court by the opposition, which decried it as a sign of anti-democratic drift on the part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government.
Bar has suggested his ouster was linked to investigations into Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack “and other serious matters,” while Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has warned of “a personal conflict of interest on the part of the prime minister due to the criminal investigations involving his associates.”
The supreme court froze the government’s initial attempt to sack Bar, and earlier this month it gave the cabinet and the attorney general’s office until the end of the just concluded Passover holiday to work out a compromise.
Bar could resign soon, according to media reports, which would bring the matter to a close.
Lapid, leader of the center-right Yesh Atid party, argued that Bar should resign over his agency’s failure to prevent the October 7 attack, and acknowledged the government had the legal authority to dismiss him, provided it was done through due process and “approved by the court.”
But he also held Netanyahu responsible for a campaign of threats levelled at Bar.
Lapid presented screenshots of social media posts containing death threats against the security chief, telling Netanyahu: “Stop this.”
“Instead of supporting incitement (to hatred), support the Shin Bet, the security forces, the systems that keep this country alive,” he added.
In 1995, the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish extremist after a campaign of violent rhetoric against him sent shockwaves through Israel.
Some accused then-opposition leader Netanyahu of not doing enough to discourage incitement to violence at the time.