U.S. House of Representatives passes Syria captagon bill
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – The U.S. House of Representatives passed on Tuesday the “Illicit Captagon Trafficking Suppression Act” with a bipartisan vote of 410-13.
The Act enables imposing new and direct sanctions against individuals and entities affiliated with the “Assad regime” who produce and traffic captagon.
“We need to have specific sanctions directly targeting individuals and networks associated with the trade of captagon, which is exactly why it is crucial that my bill, the Illicit Captagon Trafficking Suppression Act, passed the House Floor today,” U.S. Rep. French Hill said on Tuesday.
“Assad’s murderous regime is propped up by his captagon drug that generates billions in illegal funding and devastates families in the region,” Hill pointed out.
He urged the U.S. government and its partners in the region and Europe to put more pressure “on stopping the proliferation of this dangerous drug which is key to ensuring stability in the region.”
“The passage of my bill is an important next step in our decisive actions to do so,” Hill added.
The bill, also known as “Captagon II,” was introduced in July 2023 by Rep. for Arkansas, French Hill, and Florida’s Rep. Jared Moskowitz. It passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee unanimously (44-0) in November 2023.