Bashar Assad wasn’t just a despot dictator running Syria, he was a drug dealer to the entire region. Captagon addicts are going to have a real hard time scoring any now. Not only is Syria’s manufacture and distribution out of business, the Al-Qaeda terrorists who took over are destroying the drugs. They’re finding major stashes of the cheap stimulant everywhere they turn. Apparently, the ruling family was using the nation’s military as their mules.
Assad family business
The Assad family had a near monopoly over the supply of Captagon. Called “poor man’s cocaine,” it’s a widely used and addictive “amphetamine-like pill.” When HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa rolled into Damascus, he mentioned it in his victory speech.
“Syria has become the biggest producer of Captagon on earth,” he announced. “And today, Syria is going to be purified by the grace of God.”
When the religious fanatic says “purified” he means it. Addicted users in all the neighboring nations have only one choice for rehab. Sudden and total cold-turkey withdrawal. They’ll feel better in a few weeks, if they live, HTS assures.
The addicts will be much better off thanks to them. Nobody knew that the Assad family was behind the drug’s proliferation in Syria.
For years, “Authorities in neighboring countries have struggled to cope with the smuggling of huge quantities of pills across their borders.”
They didn’t realize that the reason nobody could stop it was because Assad was behind the entire operation, with help from Syria’s military. The World Bank estimates the Captagon trade at $5.6 billion. Now, we know it was a key income for the Syrian government.
Orchestrated by the regime
While nobody knew that Assad and his family were the kingpins, “at the scale that the pills were being produced and dispatched, the suspicion was that this was not simply the work of criminal gangs.”
Everyone was shocked to learn that it’s really “an industry orchestrated by the regime itself.” Videos are making the media rounds to prove it.
It’s important to note that all the properties seen being raided by HTS troops are “owned by relatives of Assad.” Clips show “rooms full of pills being made and packaged.”
They’re often “hidden in fake industrial products.” Piles of pills were discovered “in what appears to be a Syrian military airbase.” They were “set on fire by the rebels.”
Everyone in the area was convinced that Syria’s military had been aiding the smugglers. They weren’t all that surprised to learn that they were the smugglers. Especially, “its Fourth Division, led by Assad’s brother, Maher.”
The troops didn’t have a choice because Assad only paid them $30 per month. If soldiers wanted to feed their families, they had to deal Captagon. “It’s what brings most of the money,” one soldier relates.
