As Syria’s Assad regime collapses, new details of Captagon’s infamous drug trade are revealed
Damascus – In a remote corner outside Damascus, a now-abandoned potato chip factory has shed light on one of these overthrew Bashar al-Assad The regime has many dark but open secrets.
A CBS News team gained access to the site and found a storage room lined with industrial-scale hydrochloric and acetic acid. These are precursor chemicals that are required for production captainone of the most popular street drugs in the Middle East and beyond.
Ahmed Abu Yakin is in Syria Hayat Tahrir al-Shamor HTS, one of the Main groups responsible for the country after Assad continued to flee Dec 8th. Yakin says this massive underground cache of Captagon was found just days after the rebel group seized power. The pills are packaged in large stacks of household voltage regulator sets and ready for shipping.
Often referred to as “poor man’s cocaine,” Captagon is a highly addictive amphetamine-type stimulant.
“We feel sorry for the young people who depended on it,” Yakin said. “The Assad regime destroyed a generation and he didn’t care. All they cared about was making money.”
And that money is breathtaking. Analysts estimate that the Assad regime rakes in $5 billion a year from the trade, dwarfing Syria’s official budget and making it a vital lifeline for the bankrupt state. The drug costs just a few cents to produce, but a single tablet can sell for up to $20. The loot seen at the abandoned factory may be worth tens of millions of dollars.
For years, Assad’s neighboring countries accused Syria of being the world’s main supplier of the illegal drug. In March 2023, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on several Syrians for their alleged involvement in the “dangerous amphetamine,” including two of Assad’s cousins.
“Syria has become a world leader in the production of the highly addictive Captagon, much of which is smuggled through Lebanon.” said At the time, Andrea Gacki was director of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. “Together with our allies, we will hold accountable those who support Bashar al-Assad’s regime with illegal drug proceeds and other financial resources that enable the regime’s continued oppression of the Syrian people.”
Now his extremely lucrative drug business appears to have been dismantled along with his brutal and corrupt regime. For Yakin, Captagon has no place in Syria’s future.
“We will destroy everything,” Yakin said. “We will eliminate everything related to drugs and everything related to the criminal Assad regime.”
