Captagon connection: how Syria became a ‘narco state’

Bekaa Valley, Lebanon (AFP):

A decade of appalling civil war has left Syria fragmented and in ruins. Among the many ravages of the war is the spread of narcotics, especially captagon.

The stimulant has spawned an illegal $10 billion industry that not only props up the pariah regime of President Bashar al-Assad, but many of his enemies as well.

It has turned Syria into the world’s latest narco state, and has sunk deep roots in neighbouring Lebanon which is facing an economic collapse.

Captagon is now by far Syria’s biggest export, dwarfing all its legal exports put together, according to estimates drawn from official data.

An amphetamine derived from a once-legal treatment for narcolepsy and attention disorder, it has become a huge drug in the Gulf, with Saudi Arabia by far the biggest market.

Journalists and reporters interviewed smugglers, a fixer who puts together multi-million dollar deals, and 30 serving and former law enforcement officers from Syria and beyond, as well as diplomats and drug experts in a bid to grasp the scope of the phenomenon.

Most of those interviewed asked for their identities to be protected.

‘I can work for days’ 

In Saudi Arabia, captagon is often considered a “party drug”. However, its hold extends far beyond the gilded lifestyles of the kingdom’s wealthy elite.

Cheap, discreet and less of a taboo than alcohol, many poorer Saudis and migrant workers go to work on the drug.

“I can work for two or three days non-stop, which has doubled my earnings and is helping me pay off my debts,” said Faisal, a skinny 20-year-old newlywed from a working-class background, who spends 150 riyals a week ($40) on the pills.

“I finish my first job exhausted in the early hours of the morning,” but the drug helps him push through to drive for a ride-hailing service.

An Egyptian construction worker shared that he began taking the pills after his boss secretly slipped some into his coffee so he could work faster and longer.

“In time my colleagues and I became addicted,” he added.

The retail price of a pill varies wildly from $25 for the premium tablets sold to the Saudi jetset to low quality adulterated pills that go for a dollar.

Border barons and tribal networks  

Hidden behind dark glasses and a mask in the middle of a vineyard in the Bekaa Valley, a Lebanese fixer and trafficker shared how he organised the shipments.

“Four or five big names typically partner up and split the cost of a shipment of say $10 million to cover raw material, transport and bribes,” he said.

“The cost is low and the profits high,” he said, adding that even if only one shipment out of 10 gets through, “you are still a winner”.

“There’s a group of more than 50 barons… They are one big web, Syrians, Lebanese and Saudis.”

While the captagon trade spans several countries, many key players have tribal ties, particularly through the Bani Khaled, a Bedouin confederation that reaches from Syria and Lebanon to Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

A shipment can stay within the Bani Khaled’s sphere of influence the whole way from manufacture in Syria to delivery in Saudi Arabia, said multiple sources.

The economics of the trade are dizzying.

More than 400 million pills were seized in the Middle East and beyond in 2021, according to official figures.

Customs and anti-narcotics officials disclosed that for every shipment they seize, another nine make it through.

That means even with a low average price of $5 per tablet, and only four out of five shipments getting through, captagon is at least a $10 billion industry.

With Syria the source of 80 percent of the world’s supply, according to security services, the trade is at least worth three times its entire national budget.