Assad’s abandoned narcotics factories highlight horrendous scale of illicit drug trade in Syria

By Ahmet Karaahmet and Aynur Seyma Asan

DAMASCUS (AA) - Abandoned after Assad regime’s collapse in Syria, the government-funded drug operations are being exposed across the country.

The groups that overthrew the regime uncovered a drug manufacturing facility in a factory located in Douma, a district in the capital Damascus.

Footage captured by Anadolu revealed that a drug packaging workshop was operating in the factory’s basement.

In the workshop, drugs were concealed in artificial coils within electrical panels, prepared for shipment. Additionally, a large quantity of drugs was found hidden in various objects, including artificial stones and molds resembling fruits and vegetables.

On Thursday, these groups burned and destroyed the seized drugs and production equipment at Mezze Military Airport in Damascus. The drugs were identified as "captagon."

- Captagon trafficking: A regional problem

In a report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the main origins of captagon shipments are Syria and Lebanon, and that these shipments reach the Gulf Arab countries either directly by land or sea or indirectly through other regions.

According to the Middle East Institute's report for 2021, Syrian-made captagon worth around $6 billion, was seized abroad. In April 2022 alone, 25 million captagon pills worth $500 million were seized in Syria's neighboring countries.

While a single pill of the drug costs only a few cents to produce in Syria, captagon can sell for up to $25 in wealthy Middle Eastern cities like Riyadh.

Captagon trafficking has become a serious social problem in neighboring Arab countries, forcing them to negotiate with the regime to stop the supply of the drug.​​​​​​​

Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia after anti-regime groups took control of Damascus early Sunday, ending the Baath Party regime, which had been in power in Syria since 1963.​​​​​​​