The made-in-Syria drug that has Arab world on edge

Despite having faced heavy pressure from many Western governments and the Syrian civil war, having now entered its 12th year, the country's President Bashar al-Assad is slowly restoring his government's ties with the international community. Bloomberg has explored what role a synthetic drug named Captagon potentially plays in this process. Caliber.Az reprints this article.

"New efforts in the Mideast to crack down on a highly addictive stimulant known as captagon are fueling a political shift in the region that could see Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s rehabilitation in the Arab world — even as the West levies new sanctions. The US, UK and others accuse the Assad regime and its ally, the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, of producing and trafficking the illegal drug as a money spinner. Saudi Arabia and other Arab states have signaled an openness to normalizing ties with Assad — after years of supporting rebels seeking to topple him — in the hope of getting his help curbing its worrying spread. Assad, who denies any involvement with captagon, seems to be angling for relief from Western sanctions in return for his cooperation.

1. What’s captagon?

Sometimes called the poor man’s cocaine, it’s an amphetamine-type substance like speed that can trigger a boost in energy and alertness as well as a sense of euphoria or invincibility. It’s also been referred to as the 'jihadists’ drug' because of its association with Islamic militants in Iraq and Syria over the years. Gulf Arab states have been the biggest consumer market for captagon over the past two decades. According to the United Nations, the price of 'high quality' captagon sells for a few dollars in Syria to as much as $25 per tablet in Saudi Arabia. It’s popular with everyone from teenagers studying for exams to construction workers. More than 1 billion captagon pills have been seized in the last three years, with the bulk destined for Saudi Arabia, according to Karam Shaar, a Syrian economist and researcher who has advised Western governments on Syria’s war economy.

2. Where did it come from?

The drug first appeared in the early 1960s in Germany as an authorized pharmaceutical under the trade name Captagon. Its main ingredient was fenethylline and it was prescribed for a range of conditions including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and narcolepsy, mainly in Europe and the Middle East. It was banned in most countries in the 1980s because of concerns about its highly addictive nature and other side effects. Because it’s easy to make, illicit production took off in southern Europe and shifted to Lebanon and then Syria in the 2000s. While the official brand name no longer exists, tablets today are stamped with the logo and may contain a wide range of substances, including fenethylline, amphetamine, caffeine, and more, according to the US State Department.

3. What’s the link to Assad?

US and UK officials say Assad, who was heavily sanctioned by the West over his bloody quelling of a popular uprising in 2011, turned to the drug trade to generate cash and retain the loyalty of his inner circle. Today, 80% of the world’s supply of captagon is produced in Syria, according to the UK Foreign Office. It described the trade as a financial lifeline for the Assad regime worth approximately three times the combined trade of the Mexican cartels. Multibillion-dollar shipments leave regime strongholds such as the port of Latakia, and Assad’s younger brother, Maher al-Assad, who is also sanctioned, commands the elite unit of the Syrian Army that facilitates the drug’s distribution and production, as detailed in a 2021 investigation by the New York Times. In an interview with Sky News Arabia in August, Assad said war, weak governance and corruption have turned Syria into a 'flourishing' base for captagon manufacturing and trade, but denied involvement by himself or his government.

4. What’s being done?

The West and the Arab world are taking divergent tracks. The US and UK and the European Union imposed new sanctions this year on Syrian and Lebanese individuals and entities, including cousins of Assad they accused of mass producing captagon. The State Department in June released a written strategy to 'disrupt, degrade, and dismantle the illicit captagon networks linked to the Assad regime' as mandated by last year’s 'Captagon Act'. The strategy concedes, however, that the US has 'limited ability' to make an impact, as the experience fighting counternarcotics in Afghanistan illustrates.

At the same time, the Saudis have sought to reengage with Assad to curb flows of the drug. He attended an Arab League summit in Jeddah in May for the first time in 13 years, shortly after Syria was reinstated to the 22-member group. The drug has become popular well beyond Saudi Arabia and is used from the United Arab Emirates to Jordan, where the army has been enlisted to fight the captagon trade. Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, who met Assad in Damascus in July, said he hasn’t ruled out military action inside Syria. Ending captagon smuggling from Syria and Lebanon topped the agenda of a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo in August.

5. What’s Assad’s response?

In the TV interview, Assad said responsibility for the drug trade lay with Western and regional states that 'sowed chaos in Syria' by intervening on the side of his opponents. He also seemed to make the lifting of European and US sanctions on Syria and funds to rebuild the economy a condition for any progress in fighting captagon, or for allowing Syrian refugees to return homes. Lina Khatib, director of the SOAS Middle East Institute, testified to British lawmakers in June that captagon was being used as a 'diplomatic tool' ".