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What Assad’s overthrow revealed about Syrian regime’s Captagon empire

Analysis What Assad’s overthrow revealed about Syrian regime’s Captagon empire
A cheaply made form of amphetamine, Captagon has been flooding into countries of the Middle East for more than a decade, causing social harm on an unprecedented scale. (AFP)
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Updated 14 December 2024

What Assad’s overthrow revealed about Syrian regime’s Captagon empire

What Assad’s overthrow revealed about Syrian regime’s Captagon empire
  • Scale of illicit trade revealed as victorious rebels and journalists gain access to manufacturing and storage sites
  • Expert says there were signs of decentralization of Captagon production even before the Assad regime’s overthrow

LONDON: For more than a decade, the illegal drug Captagon has been mass produced in Syria, in laboratories either run by or with the blessing of a regime hard hit by Western sanctions and desperate to generate revenue.

The scale of the trade, targeted mainly at young people in the Gulf states, particularly ÂÜÀòÊÓÆ”, was revealed last year in an Arab News expose produced in collaboration with the New Lines Institute.

A cheaply made form of amphetamine, Captagon has been flooding into countries of the Middle East for more than a decade, causing social harm on an unprecedented scale.

Embossed with its distinctive twin half moons logo, which gives the drug its Arabic street name, “Abu Hilalain,” or Father of the Two Crescents, the pills are easy to make, readily available, and relatively cheap to buy.

On Dec. 4, the New Lines Institute in Washington launched a unique interactive online tool designed to help researchers and global law enforcement agencies research, track, and understand the scale and complexities of the trade.

Just days after the launch of the project, the Syrian regime, which had been locked in a grinding civil war with armed opposition groups for almost 14 years, suddenly collapsed.

In the early hours of Sunday, Dec. 8, President Bashar Assad and his family fled to Moscow, where their Russian allies granted them asylum.




The ousted president, HTS leader Abu Mohammed Al-Golani said, had caused the country to become “a major Captagon factory in the world, and today Syria is being cleansed of it.” (AFP)

Since then, multiple Captagon laboratories have been overrun in areas formerly controlled by the Syrian government, with raw materials, machinery, packaging and countless thousands of pills found abandoned in haste.

But no one should think for one moment that the collapse of the Assad regime means the end of the curse of Captagon, according to Caroline Rose, director of the Strategic Blind Spots Portfolio at the New Lines Institute.

“We are going to see a shift in the trade now that Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham and a lot of communities in Syria have started to disassemble Captagon production sites and incinerate Captagon pills,” she told Arab News.

In his victory speech at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus on Monday, HTS leader Abu Mohammed Al-Golani made a specific point of condemning the drug and Assad’s part in its production.

The ousted president, he said, had caused the country to become “a major Captagon factory in the world, and today Syria is being cleansed of it.”

It is “very clear that if you are a Captagon manufacturer who did not flee with the regime, you are now in trouble, Rose said.

“But I think what we’re going to see now is overspill, what people often call the ‘balloon effect.’ Production is being squeezed inside Syria, but we are going to see the emergence of larger-scale Captagon production facilities in a few countries where alarm bells have already been ringing.”

Authorities across the region have frequently reported seizures of the pills, intercepted at ports, airports, and border crossings, in an ongoing battle of wits with smugglers resorting to increasingly ingenious methods.

The New Lines Institute’s Captagon Trade Project, the product of years of research, is the first time that information about all reported global seizures of the drug, showing the sheer scale of the trade, can be accessed in one place.

And clues to the changing profile of the Captagon trade in the months leading up the regime’s collapse can be found in the project’s data, which reveal that production facilities have been popping up in countries including Iraq, Lebanon and Turkiye.

In Lebanon, the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, under intense pressure from Israel, “has an incentive to build up its own financial reserves, and Captagon is an easy way to do that,” Rose said.

A couple of Captagon labs were found earlier this year in Turkiye, a country where “we had not seen labs in a very long time.” Production facilities have even been found as far away as Europe, in Germany and the Netherlands.

In all these cases, it was certain that governments were not involved in the trade, according to Rose. “Syria was a very interesting and rare case where we did see the involvement of so many high-level officials in the regime, implicated in Captagon production and trafficking,” she said.

While Assad himself carefully distanced himself from the trade, his brother Maher was heavily implicated with production and smuggling efforts in his role as commander of the Fourth Armored Division, a military unit whose primary mission was to protect the Syrian regime from internal and external threats.




Authorities across the region have frequently reported seizures of the pills, intercepted at ports, airports. (AFP)

Quite where he is now remains uncertain.

“I have heard that Maher and his Fourth Division commanders made their way through Iraq to Iran and are now in Tehran,” Rose said.

“However, other reports say HTS has found and detained him. That’s not confirmed yet. But if Maher is still there, it’s likely that a lot of members of the regime’s Captagon organization are also still in Syria.”

Either way, there is now “an assumption that this is the end of Captagon, but it’s not. We need to keep in mind that over the past two years Captagon production had already started to trickle outside of Syria.

“For the longest time, regime-held Syria was the hub of Captagon production. Then we started to see labs being seized in southern and northern Iraq and even in Kuwait, which is interesting and makes sense. They were starting to build this bridge through Iraq to get closer to destination markets in the Gulf.”

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At the same time, there were signs that the regime was cracking down on the Captagon trade — or, rather, pretending to — as revealed by the comprehensive seizure data in New Lines Institute’s online mapping tool.

“We saw the regime’s incentive to normalize relations with the Gulf states, and recognition that it needed to be seen to be cracking down on this trade, while quietly still reaping the economic benefits,” Rose said.

“For that reason, we think, in the past year we have seen the supply of Captagon — or, at least, what was seized — decrease dramatically, especially in Gulf states such as ÂÜÀòÊÓÆ” and the UAE, which were the two targets for normalization discussions for the regime.

“We have cause to believe that the flow of Captagon was actually halted by the regime. They were stepping on the hose to create the appearance that they had stopped Captagon production, in the hope that it would bring the Gulf states to the table.

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While Assad himself carefully distanced himself from the trade, his brother Maher was heavily implicated. (AFP)

“In fact, as we’ve seen with the finds in Syria over the past few days, they seem to have been stockpiling the drug. Most likely later on they would have flooded the market.”

Sandwiched between Syria and ÂÜÀòÊÓÆ”, Jordan has long borne the brunt of smuggling attempts orchestrated by the Syrian military and Iran-backed militias operating in the south of Syria. It has, for many years, been a key battleground in the fight to stem the tide of the drug.

Over the past few months, however, there have been telltale signs of changes in the nature of attempts to smuggle Captagon through Jordan to ÂÜÀòÊÓÆ” and beyond. “Unusually, we’ve not seen any seizures in Jordan since early November,” Rose said.

“Typically, around this time of the year we would see an uptick in Captagon there, not only in smuggling incidents, but also in clashes along the border, because that’s when the wintry conditions start to set in, creating conditions that make it perfect for a smuggler to bypass surveillance systems.”

In ÂÜÀòÊÓÆ”, meanwhile, the most recent recorded seizure was on Dec. 7 at the Al-Wadiah border crossing with Yemen. The two before that were both on Nov. 30, at the checkpoint on the King Fahd Causeway to Bahrain and on the other side of the country at the Port of Duba on the Red Sea.

“One was about 200,000 pills, the other one 280,000, so nothing major,” Rose said. “What we’ve noticed is that the number of seizures is increasing, but the sizes of the consignments are dwindling.”

In other words, smugglers are making more frequent runs, but with smaller batches of pills, which implies smaller players smuggling overland, rather than major, connected players shipping in bulk via sea.




There is now “an assumption that this is the end of Captagon, but it’s not,” said Caroline Rose. (AFP)

Whatever HTS chief Al-Golani might say, or even intend, Syria is not yet free of Captagon, according to Rose. “I am positive that there are actors who are picking up a few thousand pills and peddling them on the street,” she said.

“This is still a very lucrative trade. Syria is not out of the woods economically, and there will be many people who will want to try to make a profit.”

Made for about $1 and typically sold for 15 times as much, Captagon is an exceptionally profitable product, which is estimated to have earned the Syrian regime more than $2 billion per year.

“And at the end of the day, old habits die hard,” Rose said.

“For a lot of these individuals, not necessarily high-level regime officials, this has been their way of life for years, and so it’s going to be very difficult for any new government in Syria to convince these criminal actors to give up this source of revenue.”


Saudi-led global Palestine peace effort rallies support at UN

Saudi-led global Palestine peace effort rallies support at UN
Updated 8 min 31 sec ago

Saudi-led global Palestine peace effort rallies support at UN

Saudi-led global Palestine peace effort rallies support at UN
  • High-level ministerial meeting held on sidelines of General Assembly
  • It follows recognition of Palestine by almost a dozen countries over the last week

NEW YORK: The Saudi-led global initiative to implement the two-state solution has rallied support for the peace process as its member countries roundly condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza.

The high-level meeting of the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution — founded last year by the Kingdom — was held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday.

The event was co-hosted by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide.

It was attended by representatives, including foreign ministers and ambassadors, of almost 100 countries that have backed Saudi and French efforts to end the war in Gaza and bring about a two-state solution.

They overwhelmingly voiced their desire to see peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and laid out a ceasefire, the disarmament of Hamas and the return of hostages as immediate prerequisites.

Many speakers called for the strengthening of the Palestinian Authority through the initiative, and for the PA to serve as an interim government in Gaza in any postwar scenario.

Prince Faisal, opening the high-level meeting, highlighted the importance of the New York Declaration, a detailed roadmap toward implementing the two-state solution that was adopted on Monday by the UNGA.

The document “is a clear mission to all of us to embody this coalition, to affirm the two-state solution and take into account all measures. We can’t have declarations unless it becomes factual work that would be realized on the field,” he said, repeating his call for the PA to be the sole government of the Occupied Territories when the Gaza war comes to an end.

“We’re also putting international measures to monitor in clear time-bound schedules. We’d also like to support (Palestinian) President Mahmoud Abbas, and we’d also like to laud his efforts despite the tough conditions,” Prince Faisal said.

“The Kingdom will continue its diplomatic and humanitarian work in order to help return the Palestinian borders based on 1967 lines, and to have security and prosperity for the whole nations of the area.”

Kallas called on the alliance to redouble its efforts toward a two-state solution, a year after its founding.

Wednesday’s high-level meeting was “happening in a very challenging global environment,” she said. “It’s clear that the situation on the ground in Gaza is catastrophic and unbearable, and it’s reaching unprecedented levels of suffering and death for the Palestinian people, both in Gaza but also in the West Bank.”

Though “our calls and efforts to cease fire have remained unheeded, I saw some optimism yesterday after the meeting of Arab leaders with (US) President (Donald) Trump,” Kallas added. “Let’s hope that there are concrete results from that.”

A ceasefire is “the only way for the unconditional release of all hostages, and eventually, a permanent end to hostilities and end of human suffering,” she said. “If a military solution was there for Gaza, the war would already be over.”

Kallas highlighted EU efforts to “engage with every actor” and bring an end to the war, and said the bloc is “active on all fronts.” 

The meeting was chaired by EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas (left), Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan (center), and Aspen Barth Eide, Norway’s foreign minister (right). (AN photo/Caspar Webb)

She added: “We’ve been committed to enhance humanitarian access through dialogue with the Israeli government.

“This has allowed an increase in the number of trucks and fuel reaching Gaza after months of blockade.”

The EU, as the largest humanitarian donor to the Palestinian people, has been supporting the PA with “budgetary and political support,” Kallas said.

“The EU has pledged $1.9 billion to support the Palestinian Authority over the next three years. We’ve also decided to launch a Palestine donor group that will be focused on enlarging contributions and long-term support for reforms,” she added.

“Bankruptcy and collapse aren’t an option if we want to preserve any chance of the two-state solution.”

The global alliance can succeed in its efforts to arrange a two-station solution by “applying both pressure and dialogue,” Kallas said.

“All of us who maintain working relations with Israel must do their utmost to persuade the Israeli government that this war doesn’t serve their interests.”

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa addressed the meeting via a pre-recorded video.

Palestinian representatives were unable to attend the UNGA this year after the US denied them visas.

“I want to thank the Kingdom of ÂÜÀòÊÓÆ” for its outstanding leadership, both as a co-chair of the high-level international conference together with France, and as a driving force for this global alliance,” Mustafa said.

“The New York Declaration charted an urgent and irreversible pathway to an independent and sovereign Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel,” he added.

“I think we all agree that the measures outlined in the declaration need to be translated into policies and actions by all the states assembled here.

“We must act more rapidly, more decisively and more collectively for these actions to lead to the fundamental shift needed.”

Eide said the situation experienced on a daily basis by Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank has gone from “bad to terrible.”

He added that Norway had “always wanted to” recognize a State of Palestine, which it did last year.

But Norway’s foreign policy establishment had thought that recognition would only occur at the end of a successful peace process based on resolving long-standing issues from the Oslo Accords, Eide said.

“There have been many years since that there were anything resembling negotiations, and we had to break out of that paradigm and establish a new one,” he added.

That led to Norwegian recognition of Palestinian statehood, and Eide praised the almost a dozen countries — including France, the UK, Canada and Australia — that followed suit over the past week.

“The goal is the same as it always was, but now the tactics have changed,” he said. “Universal recognition is just one of the many recommendations that the global alliance came out with in the New York Declaration when we met in July.

“The idea is that we’ll identify all the parts that are missing, which is of course to work 
 toward normalization between those Arab states that haven’t done it yet with Israel once Palestine is in place.”

Eide identified all the moving parts required in the practical establishment of a Palestinian state, including security guarantees for both it and Israel, demobilization, decommissioning of all weapons beyond the armed forces, and economic stability.

These are all guided by the New York Declaration, which provides “elements of a plan on how we can move forward,” he said.

“My appeal to you is that we continue to build on this. What are the practicalities? What are the concrete measures that should be taken from now on to do what the alliance is all about, which is to implement the two-state solution for real, not only in theory, but also for real?”


Comoros president slams Israel’s ‘genocide’ in Gaza

Comoros president slams Israel’s ‘genocide’ in Gaza
Updated 25 September 2025

Comoros president slams Israel’s ‘genocide’ in Gaza

Comoros president slams Israel’s ‘genocide’ in Gaza
  • ‘It’s our moral responsibility to act,’ Azali Assoumani tells UN General Assembly
  • Palestinian history ‘a succession of pages written in blood, indifference and scorn’

NEW YORK: The president of Comoros accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza during his address to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, and rejected claims that supporting a two-state solution is a “gift to Hamas.”

Azali Assoumani said the UN cannot achieve its ambitious Sustainable Development Goals if it cannot prevent genocide from taking place in Gaza or violence in other regions.

“With five years to go before the (SDG) deadline, it’s notable that the world isn’t more peaceful or more equitable. On the contrary, inequalities have increased, conflicts have multiplied, and humanity is moving further and further away from the vision that once drove us,” he added.

“The Palestinian tragedy is perhaps the most shocking demonstration of this. For more than 70 years now, and today even more so than before, the Palestinian people have been suffering the pillaging of their ancestral lands, suffering exile, torture and humiliation. Their recent history is simply a succession of pages written in blood, indifference and scorn.”

Assoumani denounced as “barbaric” the Hamas attack on Israel of Oct. 7, 2023, but “the disproportionate response that has been unleashed in Gaza since then is indeed a genocide.

“Eighty percent of the victims are children, older persons or the ill. They’ve been killed by shelling which doesn’t spare hospitals, aid distribution centers, schools, UN staff or journalists.”

He added: “The crimes perpetrated against Palestine stem from an untenable contradiction. Indeed, how can a government elected by a people who are victim of the Holocaust now commit a genocide before the very eyes of the entire world?”

He continued: “When we look at the tragedy of the Holocaust, Arab, African and Muslim countries have never been on the side of the perpetrators of genocide.

“On the contrary, our forefathers and our ancestors were risking their lives. They fought alongside the Allies to defend the Jewish people and host them, welcomed them, welcomed the survivors into their country.”

He said the two-state solution “with East Jerusalem as the capital of a State of Palestine” is “the only solution for peace and security for Israel and for the entire 
 Middle East.”

He urged the UNGA “to put the future of a Palestinian state once and for all on our common agenda. It’s our moral responsibility to act, because with every day that goes by without action being taken, thousands of innocent people, women and children die.”


Syrian president warns against Israeli attacks in landmark UN address

Syrian president warns against Israeli attacks in landmark UN address
Updated 24 September 2025

Syrian president warns against Israeli attacks in landmark UN address

Syrian president warns against Israeli attacks in landmark UN address
  • Aggression toward Syria threatens to unleash ‘new crises’ in region: Ahmad Al-Sharaa
  • Ex-rebel commander who unseated Bashar Assad urges international community to remove all sanctions

LONDON: Israel’s attacks against Syria threaten to unleash “new crises” in the region, President Ahmad Al-Sharaa told the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.

Al-Sharaa, who led opposition forces in a lightning offensive to overthrow Bashar Assad late last year, became the first Syrian leader to address the UNGA in nearly 60 years.

He outlined the progress made since he came to power, and the many challenges still facing his country after more than a decade of civil war. Chief among those has been Israel’s airstrikes and military operations in Syria.

“Israeli strikes and attacks against my country continue, and Israeli policies contradict the international supporting position for Syria,” the former commander said, adding that Israel’s attacks threaten “new crises and struggles in our region.”

But despite the aggression, Syria is committed to dialogue, he said, adding: “We call on the international community to stand beside us in the face of these attacks.”
Al-Sharaa said Syria is also committed to the 1974 agreement to separate Syrian and Israeli forces through a UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

As opposition fighters led by Al-Sharaa took control of Damascus in December, Israel took advantage of the tumult and seized the buffer zone, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring that the disengagement pact was “over.”

Since then, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes and ground operations inside Syria, including in the center of the capital.

Tensions also flared over sectarian violence in June in Syria’s Suwayda province. Israel said it carried out airstrikes to protect the Druze minority in the region.

The US has been pushing for calm between the two countries, and this week Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack said they are getting closer to a new de-escalation agreement.

The deal aims to stop Israel’s attacks on Syria, which in return would agree not to move any heavy equipment near the border.

Speaking at an event in New York on Tuesday, Al-Sharaa said he is hopeful that the deal will materialize, but said it is Syria that is “scared of Israel, not the other way around.”

The US has been among major international powers that have offered cautious support to Al-Sharaa’s administration, lifting some sanctions on Syria in the hope of offering an economic lifeline to drag the country out of years of chaos and bloodshed.

He used his UNGA speech to call for the complete lifting of all international sanctions “so that they no longer shackle the Syrian people.”

He also reeled off a list of achievements since he took power, guided by an approach based on diplomacy, security and economic development.

Al-Sharaa said he has put in place a political roadmap that is proceeding toward elections next month for a new parliament, and his government has overhauled civil and military institutions.

He added that he has acted against outbreaks of sectarian violence, set up fact-finding commissions and allowed access to investigative UN teams.

“I guarantee to bring to justice everyone accountable and responsible for bloodshed,” he said. “Syria has transformed from an exporter of crisis to an opportunity for peace for Syria and the region.”

Al-Sharaa’s appearance at the UN marks a remarkable political ascent from leader of an Islamist rebel group to international statesman within 10 months.

Since arriving in New York on Sunday, he has packed in high-level meetings and events, including talks with US Secretary of State Mark Rubio and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Perhaps the event that most summed up his elevation from militant to political leader was an interview on stage on Tuesday with Gen. David Petraeus, who commanded US forces during the 2003 Iraq invasion.

Petraeus’s troops detained Al-Sharaa in Iraq between 2006 and 2011 while he was fighting the American occupation there.

“His trajectory from insurgent leader to head of state has been one of the most dramatic political transformations in recent Middle Eastern history,” Petraeus told the audience, adding that he is a fan of Al-Sharaa.


Trump envoy Witkoff expects Mideast ‘breakthrough’ in coming days

Trump envoy Witkoff expects Mideast ‘breakthrough’ in coming days
Updated 24 September 2025

Trump envoy Witkoff expects Mideast ‘breakthrough’ in coming days

Trump envoy Witkoff expects Mideast ‘breakthrough’ in coming days
  • “We presented what we call the Trump 21-point plan for peace in the Mideast and Gaza,” Witkoff said
  • “I think it addresses Israeli concerns as well as the concerns of all the neighbors in the region“

NEW YORK: US envoy Steve Witkoff said Wednesday he expected a breakthrough related to Gaza in the coming days, saying President Donald Trump had presented a plan to regional countries.
Witkoff, a real estate friend of Trump who has become his roving ambassador, said the US president shared ideas when meeting with a group of Arab and Islamic countries Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
“We presented what we call the Trump 21-point plan for peace in the Mideast and Gaza,” Witkoff said.
“I think it addresses Israeli concerns as well as the concerns of all the neighbors in the region,” he told the Concordia summit on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
“We’re hopeful, and I might say even confident, that in the coming days we’ll be able to announce some sort of breakthrough.”
Witkoff and Trump have repeatedly voiced hope for ending the devastating nearly two-year war.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was more somber on a trip last week to Israel, which has launched massive new offensive to seize Gaza City.


Israeli, US attacks on Iran ‘inflicted grievous blow’ to prospect of regional peace: PezeshkianÌę

Israeli, US attacks on Iran ‘inflicted grievous blow’ to prospect of regional peace: PezeshkianÌę
Updated 24 September 2025

Israeli, US attacks on Iran ‘inflicted grievous blow’ to prospect of regional peace: PezeshkianÌę

Israeli, US attacks on Iran ‘inflicted grievous blow’ to prospect of regional peace: PezeshkianÌę
  • Iranian president calls Netanyahu a ‘criminal,’ slams Israeli ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid’
  • He hails Saudi-Pakistan defense deal as ‘beginning for a comprehensive regional security system’

LONDON: Israeli and US attacks on Iran in June “inflicted a grievous blow upon international trust and the very prospect of peace in the region,” Iran’s president said on Wednesday.

Addressing the UN General Assembly, the first time he has spoken in a global forum since the 12-day Israel-Iran war over the summer, Masoud Pezeshkian said Israeli and US strikes on his country were a betrayal of diplomacy.

The war saw the assassination of a number of Iran’s highest military and political leaders, and broke down weeks of negotiations with the US.

“The aerial assaults of the Zionist regime and the US against Iran’s cities, homes and infrastructures, precisely at a time when we were treading the path of diplomatic negotiations, constituted a grave betrayal of diplomacy and a subversion of efforts toward the establishment of stability and peace,” he said.

“This brazen act of aggression, in addition to martyring a number of commanders, citizens, children, women, scientists and intellectual elites of my country, inflicted a grievous blow upon international trust and the very prospect of peace in the region,” he added.

“The people of Iran, despite the most severe protracted and crushing economic sanctions, psychological and media warfare and persistent efforts to sow discord, at the very instant the first bullet was fired upon their soil, rose in unison in support of their valiant armed forces.”

Pezeshkian slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “criminal” and denounced Israel for committing “genocide” in Gaza, causing mass starvation, perpetuating “apartheid within the Occupied Territories,” and carrying out “aggression against its neighbors.”

Just days before international sanctions could be reimposed on Iran over its nuclear ambitions, Pezeshkian said: “I hereby declare once more before this assembly that Iran has never sought, and will never seek, to build a nuclear bomb. We don’t seek nuclear weapons.”

He condemned the recent Israeli strike on Doha that targeted Hamas negotiators, and declared Iran’s solidarity with the government and people of Qatar.

He also welcomed a defense agreement between ÂÜÀòÊÓÆ” and Pakistan that was signed last week.

Pezeshkian hailed it “as a beginning for a comprehensive regional security system with the cooperation of the Muslim states of West Asia in the political, security and defense domains.”