By Timour Azhari
DOUMA, Syria (Reuters) – The industrial-scale drug lab sat simply up a hill from a fundamental street on the western fringe of Damascus, town that was the seat of energy for the Assad household which lengthy denied any hyperlinks to the narcotics commerce.
President Bashar al-Assad’s authorities in Syria was accused by Washington and others of profiteering from the manufacturing and sale of the addictive amphetamine-like stimulant generally often called captagon which turned entrenched throughout the Middle East, from entrance strains of wars to building websites and high-end events.
The annual commerce in captagon is price billions of {dollars} a yr, specialists say, and Western governments have linked the illicit commerce in Syria to Assad’s brother, Maher al-Assad, and the Fourth Division of the Syrian military he commanded.
Maher Assad’s whereabouts will not be recognized and Reuters couldn’t attain him for touch upon the allegations.
Bashar Assad’s fall after a lightning insurgent offensive has allowed journalists for the primary time to start out looking out in Syria for proof of the captagon empire.
In the darkish, cavernous warehouses on the deserted website within the metropolis of Douma, fighters who ousted Assad mentioned they discovered 1000’s of drugs hidden in furnishings, fruit, ornamental pebbles and voltage stabilizers that Reuters reporters noticed stacked on pallets, with a trailer ready exterior.
Many of the drugs have been stamped with the double crescent brand or the phrase “Lexus” that identifies captagon drugs.
“These are prepared for export,” mentioned one of many fighters loyal to Syria’s new rulers who took Reuters reporters inside after which cracked open one of many export-ready units, revealing the drugs hidden inside.
Caroline Rose, director of the New York-based New Lines Institute Captagon Trade Project, mentioned the worldwide commerce in captagon has an estimated worth of $10 billion and put the ousted Syrian management’s annual revenue from it at round $2.4 billion.
Rose, whose organisation tracks all publicly recorded captagon seizures and lab raids, mentioned the location seen by Reuters seemed to be one of many greatest captagon labs that has been discovered.
“It’s very potential that it is the greatest one which existed in regime-held Syria,” she mentioned.
BARRELS, BOXES AND BOTTLES
Inside was a pill-press and, within the warehouse above, dozens of barrels, bins and bottles of various chemical compounds.
They included Chloroform, Potassium Iodide, Formaldehyde Solution, Ammonia resolution sg 0.91, Acetic Acid, Hydrochloric acid, Cyclohexanone and Petroleum ether 40-60 levels C.
The chemical compounds have been produced in international locations together with Britain China, India, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, in keeping with the labels.
Captagon was the model identify of a stimulant first produced in Germany within the Sixties to assist deal with consideration situations together with deficit issues and narcolepsy.
It was discontinued however a bootleg model of the drug often called “poor man’s cocaine” continued to be produced in japanese Europe and later within the Arab world, changing into outstanding within the battle that erupted in Syria following anti-government protests in 2011.
It generates focus and staves off sleep and starvation. It has been banned in lots of international locations together with the U.S. and might have dangerous unwanted side effects. Its prevalence has led to rising drug abuse in Gulf Arab states.
FROM CAPTAIN KORN TO CAPTAGON
Syrian businessman Fares Al-Tout mentioned his household had owned the manufacturing unit earlier than Syria’s civil struggle, when it was constructed to supply potato chips branded Captain Korn.
He mentioned it was seized in 2018 by a businessman near Maher, Amer al-Khiti.
“They flipped it from the manufacturing of meals to the manufacturing of captagon that killed Syria’s kids in help of the Fourth Division,” Tout instructed Reuters.
The U.S imposed sanctions on Khiti in 2020 over his ties to the Assad authorities. Britain imposed sanctions on him in 2023, saying he “operates and controls a number of companies in Syria which facilitate the manufacturing and smuggling of medication, together with captagon.”
Khiti couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.
A Reuters reporter on the scene discovered electoral pamphlets for Syria’s peoples meeting, its legislature, mendacity on the ground with Khiti listed as one of many candidates, in addition to separate electoral playing cards with simply his identify on them.
In the times since Assad’s fall, insurgent fighters say they’ve discovered a number of websites throughout the nation the place the drug was produced and ready for export.
They have generally set fireplace to the drugs or poured them down drains, in keeping with movies shared on-line by accounts affiliated with them.
Rose famous that her organisation tracked all publicly recorded captagon seizures and lab raids.
“Up till the regime fell, there was not a single incident of a laboratory seizure on the database in regime-held territories,” Rose mentioned.
(Reporting by Timour Azhari, Editing by Timothy Heritage and Jon Boyle)
