Bachar Al-Assad has never had to answer for the least of his crimes, the list of which is nevertheless long, from crimes against humanity to organized massacres, including campaigns of systematic rape and enforced disappearances. The Syrian dictator has indeed managed to circumvent international sanctions by methodically developing the industrial production and aggressive marketing of Captagon.
This highly addictive amphetamine has now become, with billions of dollars in annual revenue, the main source of foreign currency for the Assad regime. And although this drug may be primarily intended for Saudi Arabia, where it is already a serious public health problem, Riyadh now seems ready to normalize its relations with Damascus, broken off since 2012 due to the fierce repression of the popular uprising in Syria.
The hottest drug in Arabia
Captagon, a synthetic dopant, initially based on fenetylline, has a manufacturing cost that is all the lower as Syria could historically boast of a good quality pharmaceutical industry. The Assad regime therefore contented itself with retraining pharmacologists ruined by the war for the manufacture of amphetamines and establishing a solid network of clandestine workshops.
The protection of these workshops, often located in military zones with restricted access, is the responsibility of the fourth division of General Maher Al-Assad, younger brother of the Syrian president. It is these same shock troops who ensure the protection of convoys loaded with amphetamines to Lebanon, where the relay is taken over by partners linked to Hezbollah, or to Jordan (the opening of the land border, in August 2021, very quickly accompanied by clashes between Syrian traffickers and Jordanian security).
Even if an increasingly worrying part of the Captagon thus infiltrated in Lebanon and Jordan is consumed on the spot, the ultimate destination of such shipments of narcotics remains Saudi Arabia and its market as solvent as it seems inextinguishable. Captagon, driven by its reputation as an “active” drug, enjoys undeniable popularity in the middle class of Saudi cities, where alcohol remains reserved for a more or less protected elite.
In the staggering hierarchy, the Captagon with the most amphetamines, and therefore the most expensive, is also nicknamed “Mohammed Ben Salman”, in reference to the Prime Minister and Crown Prince of the kingdom, a real strongman of the country because of the declining health of his father, King Salman. Riyadh had even imposed, in the spring of 2021, an embargo on agricultural imports from Lebanon, after the repeated discovery of shipments of “stuffed” fruits or vegetables at Captagon.
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