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Syrian Drug Smuggling: Assad Would Not Survive Loss of Captagon Revenues
(Spiegel-Germany) Jorg Diehl - In April 2020, Romanian customs officials found 2.1 million Captagon pills with amphetamine content of 11.5% and a street value of 43.5 million euros inside a cargo container loaded with refrigeration units. In July 2020, 84 million pills were confiscated in the port of Salerno, Italy, with a street value of a billion euros. Syria has transformed into a Mediterranean narco-state, generating a significant portion of its revenues through international sales of Captagon, which is especially popular in Arab countries. It's not like the Syrian regime merely stands aside to allow the ongoing production and export of the drugs, says Joel Rayburn, a former U.S. special envoy for Syria. "They are the cartel." German investigators have found proof that the Fourth Army Division, under the leadership of the president's brother, Maher Assad, earns money from the drug shipments. They believe the unit is paid $300,000 for every container shipped out of Latakia. The New Lines Institute in Washington holds that the total value of the shipments amounted to at least $5.7 billion in 2021, several times higher than Syria's legal exports.