How the Assads used the civil war to turn Syria into a narco state : NPR

DAMASCUS, Syria — A luxurious villa dominates a hilltop overlooking the countryside simply 15 miles outdoors the capital, Damascus. The driveway has a streak of white powder resulting in the doorway. The bottom is sticky, and the air is crammed with a powerful odor of tar.

A battered pickup truck with an anti-aircraft gun is parked on the high of the driveway. The massive backyard is unkempt and the swimming pool is soiled and deserted. All this hints at a extra sinister story inside; this was a manufacturing facility for a extremely addictive drug referred to as Captagon.

For the previous a number of years, the regime of Syria’s ousted president, Bashar al-Assad, produced and trafficked in Captagon, sending it to international locations all through the area, the place it was standard amongst younger folks. The Assad authorities earned billions of {dollars} in a determined try and prop up an economic system that collapsed throughout the nation’s lengthy civil struggle.

With Assad now gone, proof of the in depth drug operations is now coming to gentle.

From a authorized pharmaceutical to a bootleg celebration drug

Captagon was created as a authorized pharmaceutical drug in Germany within the early Nineteen Sixties to deal with situations like consideration deficit dysfunction. It provides customers a rush of vitality and might make them very productive within the quick time period.

Nevertheless, Captagon can also be very addictive and might trigger hallucinations and coronary heart issues. Captagon was banned around the globe, together with within the U.S. But it surely gained a second life as a bootleg celebration drug standard in Japanese Europe and the Center East.

Abu Bakr al-Tartousi, 29, led the group of insurgent fighters who found this manufacturing facility within the distant space of Masakin al-Deemaas shortly after his group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, helped topple the Assad regime.

Tartousi is wearing fatigues and a backward-facing baseball cap, and he fidgets with an assault rifle throughout his physique.

He steps into the center of what would have been the lounge of this home, with marble flooring and two large, low-hanging crystal chandeliers.

Stacked in opposition to one wall are brown drums of a liquid chemical with labels that say “Manufactured in India.” Towards one other wall is a ceiling-high pile of sacks crammed with white powder.

“These are the components to make reputable medication,” Tartousi mentioned. “However they used it to make Captagon right here.”

The lab was arrange within the giant, dusty kitchen cluttered with heavy obligation equipment and rubbish. The kitchen seems like one present in a restaurant, with giant steel sinks and an area the place an industrial-size range can be.

He mentioned the rebels referred to as the Ministry of Well being as quickly as they found the manufacturing facility, they usually have been instructed to burn as most of the medication as they might. A charred pile sits in the course of the driveway.

“The officers got here to take samples first, to determine which supplies we should always destroy and what to maintain,” Tartousi mentioned.

In a single room, small, spherical casings litter the ground. Tartousi’s footwear crunch over them as he walks. He picks up a pile of the pellets and begins to smash one. After a number of tries, the pellet breaks open, and in his palm a small, pinkish pill spills out.

“That is it,” Tartousi mentioned, turning it over in his hand. “That is Captagon.”

Syria was the hub of the Captagon commerce

“Round 2018, 2019, when the regime began to acknowledge that this was a profitable illicit commerce, we noticed this large-scale funding into industrial scale manufacturing, manufacturing amenities, warehouses, trafficking networks,” mentioned Caroline Rose on the New Strains Institute, a suppose tank primarily based in Washington with an emphasis on worldwide affairs, together with the Center East. She’s studied this drug commerce for years.

Rose mentioned a key determine was Assad’s brother, Maher al-Assad. He is greatest often called the regime’s brutal enforcer. However he additionally ran the Captagon enterprise by working intently with Syria’s navy and safety companies.

This villa outdoors Damascus is not the one manufacturing facility present in Syria. There have been a number of, together with a big manufacturing facility that was not too long ago raided in Douma, additionally close to the capital.

“It was a manufacturing facility for potato chips referred to as Captain Corn,” mentioned Rose. “After its manufacturing facility proprietor left Syria in 2018, Maher personally licensed that manufacturing facility for use for Captagon manufacturing. It was Maher that basically operated and coordinated and created this very easy construction.”

The Syrians distributed the drug all through the area, with main markets within the rich Gulf international locations, together with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. From Syria’s perspective these have been superb markets. Wealthy international locations with plenty of younger folks. Alcohol is banned and penalties for exhausting medication are harsh. Captagon carried much less of a social stigma and was comparatively cheap and extensively obtainable.

As using Captagon elevated, Syria’s neighbors sought to cease it. Nevertheless, most had remoted Bashar al-Assad as a result of means he was prosecuting the struggle in Syria and subsequently did not have a variety of affect over him.

Prior to now couple of years, a number of Arab states have moved to reestablish some hyperlinks with him. That is partly as a result of it was wanting like Assad had survived the civil struggle. The preventing had tapered off, the regime nonetheless held the main cities, and it appeared there was no actual various.

Additionally, among the Arab states believed that in the event that they reengaged with Assad, they might work collectively to crack down on the drug trafficking.

In impact, Syria had created an issue it may use as leverage to finish its isolation.

David McCloskey, a former CIA official who labored on Syria, described the Syrian regime’s technique this fashion: “Let’s earn cash by promoting one thing that is profitable to our regime. After which let’s create an issue for the Saudis, the Jordanians, the Gulf states, in order that they’ve to come back to us if they need this turned off. It looks like among the logic in reengaging him was lowering this drug commerce.”

The fighters who’ve taken over in Damascus say they now wish to cease this drug commerce on the supply.

“We’ll now rely upon firms and establishments, development and businessmen,” mentioned fighter Abu Mohamed al-Suri, 31, who guarded the gate of the villa.

However this can rely upon how a lot management a brand new Syrian authorities is ready to set up, mentioned Caroline Rose. She thinks the larger operations run by the Assad regime are more likely to get shut down. Nevertheless, smaller, underground labs may survive or crop up elsewhere.

After all, that is simply one of many many issues Syria faces because it tries to rebuild.