DOUMA, Syria – The economic-scale drug lab sat simply up a hill from a most important street on the western fringe of Damascus, town that was the seat of energy for the Assad household, which lengthy denied any hyperlinks to the narcotics commerce.
President Bashar al-Assad‘s authorities in Syria was accused by Washington and others of profiteering from the manufacturing and sale of the addictive amphetamine-like stimulant generally often known as captagon which grew to become entrenched throughout the Center East, from entrance traces of wars to development websites and high-end events.
The annual commerce in captagon is price billions of {dollars} a 12 months, specialists say, and Western governments have linked the illicit commerce in Syria to Assad’s brother, Maher al-Assad, and the Fourth Division of the Syrian military he commanded.
Capsules, which, in response to fighters loyal to the brand new ruling Syrian physique, are captagon, are positioned inside an apple-shaped container, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria on December 12, 2024.
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Maher Assad’s whereabouts should not recognized and Reuters couldn’t attain him for touch upon the allegations.
Bashar Assad’s fall after a lightning insurgent offensive has allowed journalists for the primary time to start out looking in Syria for proof of the captagon empire.
In the dead of night, cavernous warehouses on the deserted web site within the metropolis of Douma, fighters who ousted Assad mentioned they discovered hundreds of drugs hidden in furnishings, fruit, ornamental pebbles and voltage stabilizers that Reuters reporters noticed stacked on pallets, with a trailer ready outdoors.
Most of the drugs have been stamped with the double crescent emblem or the phrase “Lexus” that identifies captagon drugs.
“These are prepared for export,” mentioned one of many fighters loyal to Syria’s new rulers who took Reuters reporters inside after which cracked open one of many export-ready gadgets, revealing the drugs hidden inside.
Caroline Rose, director of the New York-based New Traces Institute Captagon Commerce Undertaking, mentioned the worldwide commerce in captagon has an estimated worth of $10 billion and put the ousted Syrian management’s annual revenue from it at round $2.4 billion.
Rose, whose group tracks all publicly recorded captagon seizures and lab raids, mentioned the location seen by Reuters gave the impression to be one of many greatest captagon labs which have been discovered.
“It’s very doable that it is the greatest one which existed in regime-held Syria,” she mentioned.
Barrels, containers and bottles
Inside was a tablet press and, within the warehouse above, dozens of barrels, containers, and bottles of various chemical substances.
They included Chloroform, Potassium Iodide, Formaldehyde Resolution, Ammonia resolution sg 0.91, Acetic Acid, Hydrochloric acid, Cyclohexanone and Petroleum ether 40-60 levels C.
The chemical substances have been produced in international locations together with Britain, China, India, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, in response to the labels.
Captagon was the model title of a stimulant first produced in Germany within the Nineteen Sixties to assist deal with consideration situations together with deficit problems and narcolepsy.
It was discontinued, however a bootleg model of the drug often known as “poor man’s cocaine” continued to be produced in Japanese Europe and later within the Arab world, changing into distinguished within the battle that erupted in Syria following anti-government protests in 2011.
It generates focus and staves off sleep and starvation. It has been banned in many countries, together with the U.S., and may have dangerous negative effects. Its prevalence has led to rising drug abuse in Gulf Arab states.
From Captain Korn to Captagon
Syrian businessman Fares Al-Tout mentioned his household had owned the manufacturing facility earlier than Syria’s civil battle, when it was constructed to provide potato chips branded Captain Korn.
He mentioned it was seized in 2018 by a businessman near Maher, Amer al-Khiti.
“They flipped it from the manufacturing of meals to the manufacturing of captagon that killed Syria’s kids in assist of the Fourth Division,” Tout instructed Reuters.
The united statesimposed sanctions on Khiti in 2020 over his ties to the Assad authorities. Britain imposed sanctions on him in 2023, saying he “operates and controls a number of companies in Syria which facilitate the manufacturing and smuggling of medicine, together with captagon.”
Khiti couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.
A Reuters reporter on the scene discovered electoral pamphlets for Syria’s peoples meeting, its legislature, mendacity on the ground with Khiti listed as one of many candidates, in addition to separate electoral playing cards with simply his title on them.
Within the days since Assad’s fall, insurgent fighters say they’ve discovered a number of websites throughout the nation the place the drug was produced and ready for export.
They’ve typically set hearth to the drugs or poured them down drains, in response to movies shared on-line by accounts affiliated with them.
Rose famous that her organisation tracked all publicly recorded captagon seizures and lab raids.
“Up till the regime fell, there was not a single incident of a laboratory seizure on the database in regime-held territories,” Rose mentioned.
This text initially appeared on USA TODAY: Syrian rebels uncover captagon pill lab run by Assad’s brother
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