Report by Muhammad Habash
Ibrahim grabbed a few cigarettes stuffed with hashish from “bad companions” so that he was transformed into an addict who later, used various types of drugs, to quickly fall into what it is called “the world of drugs”.
In this investigation, we will learn the story of Ibrahim and other drug addicts. We will also explore the secrets of this “world” in the northeastern regions of Syria through direct interviews with victims, involved, abusers, traders and drug dealers, from inside a prison in Qamishli.
For six consecutive months, North Press investigated the course of drug smuggling operations to and from northeastern Syria, most of which are now held by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), after the Syrian government withdrew from it in the early summer of 2012, leaving behind a legacy of chaos.
The investigator was able to obtain files that have been revealed for the first time and related to networks operating in Syria in various ways and methods, including the use of aid trucks transporting the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to smuggle drugs.
The investigation also reveals smuggling operations run by members of the Lebanese Hezbollah and officers in the Syrian government army, via Qamishli International Airport, and how they turned the al-Tay neighborhood in the city into a hotspot for drug trafficking.
How do they fall into the abyss?
Years ago, in the Qaddour Beik neighborhood of Qamishli, Ibrahim, a pseudonym for a 40-year-old family head, was introduced to this world fraught with secrecy and the dangers of legal prosecution, in addition to being an outcast in society.
Ibrahim, who is now in prison after he was sentenced to three years, says that his friends were stuffing an amount of narcotic substances in cigarettes without his knowledge. When he found out, he was also addicted.
About a year and a half before he entered prison, Ibrahim had 14 days in which he could not sleep, except for a few hours, after he consumed a dose of heroin in a room he had allocated for himself in a house where he lived with his wife and three children.
These days, he suffered from anxiety, tension, nausea, severe diarrhea and fear of the dose expiring.
“It did not matter in which environment I lived anymore. What used to concern me was when I ran out of heroin, where would I get more?” he said.
“At first, I started using it for free at the expense of my friends who were stuffing heroin into cigarettes without my knowledge, but I got used to it,” he added.
Ibrahim believed that entering the world of drugs is not difficult, as the atmosphere at the beginning is often prepared.
“After taking a dose, a heroin addict loses his appetite for food for 14 days. He cannot eat more than one loaf of bread every day, and soon his skin color changes pale yellow,” he explained.
Jamil Youssef, a pseudonym for a 36-year-old abuser, arrived in Qamishli from Damascus in 2012, after the outbreak of the war.
He recounted that when he arrived in the city, he was surprised by the extent of the abuse among his friends and his surrounding of youth, in light of the increased activity of the trade movement in the wake of the chaos caused by the withdrawal of the Syrian government from the region.
“One evening, all of my friends were laughing except for me. Then, they gave me a dose of drugs to enter in ecstasy, and from here the story began.”
Youssef started consuming for a year and a half, while he stopped two years later, but he returned to abuse on the grounds that what he was doing was “personal freedom, provided that it does not harm anyone.”
He pointed out that most drug users are poor, “they start stealing money from their families, and it turns into stealing other people’s houses until the people lose their trust and become a social outcast.”
Drug abuser’s interview
like Ibrahim, Youssef and about 100 other convicts are serving their in prison with sentences ranging from three to six years.
Heroin is one of the most sought-after substances after hashish because of its availability and cheapness compared to other very expensive substances. However, heroin is more addictive than hashish.
Before entering the prison, Youssef used 20 grams of heroin a month. He used to get his “needs” from a trader (he refused to reveal his name). He said that the trader was arrested and informed against him during the investigations.
Other types of narcotic substances are widespread, their varieties and prices abound, and cocaine is considered one of the most dangerous and most expensive substances.
How drugs enter Qamishli?
The regions of northeastern Syria have three crossings, with each of the Syrian government-held areas and the armed opposition areas, in addition to the Iraqi border crossing.
During this investigation, it was found that most of the narcotic substances come from the Syrian government-held areas, which are vital areas for the Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, in addition to the entry of some of the substances from the areas controlled by the armed opposition groups, according to what a trader and a drug dealer, who were arrested, revealed, as we conducted exclusive interviews with both of them from inside their prison in Qamishli.
“If I knew that the press was here, I would not have gone out of the dormitory,” the trader shouted when he entered a room prepared for interviews in advance.
However, after receiving a response, he agreed to the interviews, provided that he was not filmed, and despite our assurance that his identity would be hidden, he insisted on removing the cameras from the room, and this has already been done.
The trader started his speech by saying, “Give me your phone to bring you the amount you want now. In Lebanon, cultivating is widespread and with the rise in the value of the dollar and the economic crisis, they want to export it at any price.”
“Things are easy, and they are not as difficult as you would expect,” he added.
The beginnings of the trader’s involvement in the drug world go back to about 18 years during his stay in the city of Damascus, where he used to trade narcotic pills in the alleys of the old city, then he was arrested in 2007 and transferred to Adra prison, one of the largest prisons in Syria.
He was sentenced for seven years, but “the buying and selling process continued even inside prison, I had many friends during the period of detention until my release,” he said.
As the war raged on, the “Syrian regime” released a large number of those involved in drug abuse on the condition that they volunteer in militias supporting the Syrian army. Some of them were transferred to the 154 Regiment in Tartab near Qamishli, according to the testimony of the trader.
After his release from prison in 2014, the trader returned to Qamishli and continued his old profession.
The trader, who was sentenced by the AANES courts to four years, added: “I used to give quantities of hashish to an officer at Qamishli airport, who in turn sold it to the 154 Regiment, and batches of hashish were sent from Qamishli to the Deir ez-Zor region by military aircraft.”
During his sentence in Adra prison, he got acquainted with abusers and officials. After his release from prison and his return to Qamishli, he used the acquaintances to meet the needs of Tartab Regiment’s members of drugs.
“How can government districts be a source of hashish while the quantities are received by a trader in Qamishli who sells them to officers?” we asked him.
“For example, I used to send hashish to the members of the National Defense Forces (NDF) in Hasakah even though the regime’s areas were the source of drugs, because they did not trust the traders of those areas, they needed a third party like me. I used to receive the substances from them and then give it to others and get my commission,” he answered.
It seems that the operation was taking place in a reciprocal manner to conceal the identity of the people who trade between the regions, benefiting from the conflict and the lack of coordination in the security field between the AANES and the Syrian government.
At the Basel al-Assad Roundabout near Qamishli airport, the trader used to receive a quantity of the substances from his partner who lives in al-Tay neighborhood (a neighborhood controlled by the government’s NDF), to be delivered to the officer by the trader.
Like other professionals in this trade, he is forced to change his whereabouts or places of receipt and delivery of goods, in order not to arouse suspicion, “and it is preferable that areas be free from checkpoints and the security services.”
Dealer’s interview
The trader noted to two routes for drugs entering Qamishli, “hashish from Lebanon and heroin from Iran and Iraq. The heroin is sent to Lebanon to reduce its density and then returned to Syria.”
“The two types of hashish and modified heroin come from Lebanon through traders who have good relations with Hezbollah members, and enter Syrian lands through them, to be distributed later on demand,” he explained.
“Narcotic substances such as heroin and hashish enter Qamishli through its airport with the mediation of Hezbollah, and most of the time they enter al-Tay neighborhood from where the traders receive their goods,” he added.
Other batches also come from Iran to Iraq and enter the Syrian territories through smugglers in the Tel Kochar (al-Ya’rubiya) border area, and from there to al-Tay neighborhood, passing through the checkpoints of al-Sanadid forces and the Internal Security Forces (Asayish), according to the trader.
The trader stated that Qamishli has become a transit area, as it receives heroin from Iraq to be sent to Lebanon to reduce its density, and then return it to Syria.
“As long as the borders remain open, dealing with the drug issue is impossible. It is a profitable business. Even during the curfew of the coronavirus, trade was continuing, especially the Lebanon path through Hezbollah members. The drug trade does not stop,” he indicated.
Al-Tay neighborhood.. hotspot of drugs
Almost everyone we interviewed, agreed that the al-Tay neighborhood is the vital and essential center for traders and drug dealers in the region in general.
In 2012, Ibrahim accompanied one of his friends, who was a drug dealer, with the aim of receiving a quantity of heroin in exchange for some weapons and a sum of money. The receipt and handover operation took place in al-Tay neighborhood.
“The officer who brought heroin was riding in a BMW. My friend gave him the weapons and money and he received the agreed amount of heroin. These things happen in secret,” Ibrahim said.
During the interviews we conducted inside the prison, the convicts were reluctant to mention the names of the big traffickers who run the drug trade networks, and one of them preferred to describe them as “big heads”.
They justified not mentioning these people, for fear of harm to them or their families outside.
The trader, who is serving a prison sentence after he was arrested in possession of 35 kg of hashish, said: “Big heads will not be seen in prison. They are known and with prestigious names in society, but you cannot reach them, neither you nor those who are stronger than you.”
Like other convicts, the trader refused to mention the names of these persons, but he hinted indirectly: “Some of them are known among us and have a good reputation. They are owners of service projects, but they are in fact drug dealers. They have an extensive network of relationships and operate extensively. Their interests sometimes overlap with the interests of states.”
“Do you know why none of us dares to mention names? because we know that they are strong and no one can reach them,” he asked and answered at the same time.
Traders rely on a strong network of relationships with “figures in power,” but despite this, trafficking and drug smuggling are not that easy, as they depend on secrecy in trade, transportation and the distribution of quantities. It all happens with people who are often only fronts.
The trader refused to mention any documented information or numbers about the big traders who do not deal with small local dealers, but rather “directly send the substances to Lebanon through Qamishli airport, and they have wide influence at the airport.”
“Those who are being arrested are either abusers or dealers and are classified as dealers, but the real dealers rarely deal in hashish and heroin, they trade cocaine,” he noted.
Cocaine is considered one of the most dangerous and most expensive substances, as the price of one gram reaches $100, and its abuse and trafficking is limited to traders and venture capitalists.
An official in the Public Prosecution Office of the Qamishli Court, preferred not to be named, spoke to North Press that most of the people they arrest are linked to networks. Nobody can work in the drug business alone, and that they rely on investigations to uncover them.
“We cannot reach the big traders we discover through our investigations, because they are outside our areas of control, and most of them live in al-Tay neighborhood. They store materials and promote them,” he said.
“When the name of al-Tay neighborhood is mentioned, investigations on the case are stopped. We cannot reach this neighborhood, so we arrest anyone who has a relationship with drug trafficking and promotion in our areas, even if he is small,” he added.
Aid and drug truck
In January 2020, a truck carrying humanitarian aid for the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) set off from Tartus governorate on the Syrian coast, heading to the city of Hasakah in the northeast of the country.
During the inspection, the Asayish officers discovered 75 sacks, each one contained 1,000 Captagon pills inside the car tires.
North Press conducted exclusive interviews with members of the network in one of the AANES’s prisons, with reservations from publishing their names upon their request.
The network consists of six people in addition to a senior security officer and another person who live in Latakia on the Syrian coast.
Mahmoud Muhammad, a pseudonym for the truck driver, waited four days in the governorate of Homs to obtain the SARC approval, then he went to the city of Tabqa in the AANES-held areas, where he waited for another two days, then he set off for Hasakah.
“When I got to Hasakah, I took out six bags of pills from the spare tire. I kept them to secure my commission from the dealer,” Mahmoud said.
The driver took out the bags in the industrial city of Hasakah, and that was a reason for his disclosure, so the Asayish quickly surrounded the truck and arrested him.
After the investigations, the driver made confessions about the network, and the Asayish lured the dealer into an ambush in the city of Manbij, northeast of Aleppo.
The truck was supposed to go to Manbij after the aid was unloaded at the SARC headquarters in Hasakah.
In Manbij, Abdo al-Sheikh, 64, a pseudonym for the owner of the truck and responsible for receiving the cargo, was waiting for its arrival near the Electricity Company on the Manbij-Aleppo road. He did not know that the driver had been arrested in Hasakah.
The officer and Youssef al-Sheikh – brother of Abdo al-Sheikh – agreed on sending the pills to be given to another trader, via Abdo, who was in Manbij, for an amount of $900.
During the investigations, Abdo al-Sheikh informed the names of four other people who were waiting for the cargo, and they were arrested later.
The path of the truck carrying the narcotic pill
How do local authorities deal?
Since its establishment in 2014, the Anti-Organized Crime Division affiliated with the Asayish in the Autonomous Administration has been the primary responsible for the fight against drugs in the region.
Officials say, the office is tracking drug dealers and traffickers, relying on a network of native sources and the preliminary investigations that take place during the arrest of a suspect.
The period of detention “for the purpose of investigation” is usually 72 hours, and it can be extended to six days after the Public Prosecution requests permission for an extension for reasons related to the investigations.
Some of our interviewees accused the Anti-Organized Crime Division of dealing with suspects with illegal methods such as torture to gain access to information.
However, Ali al-Hassan, the Asayish spokesman, denied this saying: “All investigation rooms are equipped with cameras and voice recorders that work around the clock, and no one can violate the laws.”
“We have a complaints and oversight office. Anyone can file a complaint, then we will share the recordings with the prosecution. They are all in the archive and we are ready to submit them if needed,” he added.
However, only the judiciary and the Public Prosecution office are allowed access to the investigations recordings and archives.
On September 25, 2020, the Asayish announced, in a press conference in the city of Rumailan, that 182 people accused of drug trafficking had been arrested in north and east Syria.
According to the Asayish, 33 traders, 71 drug dealers and 78 drug abusers were arrested in this campaign, in addition to destroying 1,655 kg of hashish.
We showed al-Hassan documents in our possession and information we obtained through our interviews, especially regarding the transformation of Qamishli into a transit zone for drugs, so his response was: “According to the information and statistics available to us, we cannot consider the city a center for drug trafficking, but if the promotion and trade are taking place in areas outside our control, we cannot govern.”
Al-Hassan categorically rejects the term “Big Heads” saying, “There are many networks trying to target the area. We cannot say that there is a big or a small head, everyone is involved, from the smallest promoter to the largest trader.”
“The names and attributes do not matter to us. We do not differentiate in this matter. Whoever was involved will be arrested,” he noted.
But the trader insists from his prison that there are 25 “big heads” who are operating outside the law in the area. However, he did not name any of these.
Hashish among cotton crop
Not only did the “drug world” networks smuggle substances through multiple means, taking advantage of the chaos that has accompanied the war taking place in the country for nearly ten years, but some of them repeatedly tried to produce some types locally.
Between 2011 and 2014, northern Syria witnessed open cultivation of hashish.
At that time, the Asayish was still newly-found and had “confiscated and destroyed the crop,” and extensively controlled local production in the areas it controlled at the time.
The cultivation of hashish has relatively decreased in the region over time.
However, some farmers circumvent the Asayish by planting hashish between cotton bushes and cumin seedlings.
Last year, the Asayish seized a farm producing local hashish in the countryside of Raqqa, which had been active since the days of the Islamic State (ISIS) control of the region.
“The seeds have been stored with the farmer since the days of ISIS rule, and he used to keep them to plant when he had the opportunity,” al-Hassan said.
“There are many detainees who have officially confessed to their involvement with external parties to target the region,” he added.
However, al-Hassan declined to name any of these parties, just saying: “Everyone knows who are those trying to target the experience of the Autonomous Administration. It is not hidden to anyone.”
The Anti-Organized Crime Office is not allowed to arrest suspects and investigate them except after the approval of the Public Prosecution office which is responsible for pursuing anti-drug cases.
The office reveals the content of the preliminary investigations after collecting information about the suspects to the Public Prosecution, and follows up the file from its inception in coordination between the two parties, and if the suspicion is proven correct, the arrest is approved.
The Public Prosecution office supervises the preliminary investigations and submits the case with evidence to the court for approval of the verdict.
According to Article 17 of Decree 15 on the Narcotics Act of the Autonomous Administration, a person accused of drug trafficking is imprisoned from three years to life imprisonment.
However, according to the prosecution, the longest sentence is from five to six years, due to the lack of prisons that accommodate convicted in the Autonomous Administration areas.
The convicted is fined an amount of not less than one million and not more than five million pounds.
There are no clinics for Youssef and hundreds of abusers
Jamil Youssef is one of hundreds of people who are arrested on charges of abuse. They are thrown into prison with people convicted of various sentences, and prison dormitories often include drug dealers and promoters.
“When we go to prison, we tell ourselves that we will not return to this world, but soon we fall into it again when we meet our drug abuser friends, because we did not receive treatment psychologically and physically,” Youssef said.
According to Article 23 of the Narcotics Act in the Autonomous Administration, drug abusers are transferred to a “psycho-social clinic,” and the clinic operates under the supervision of a specialized committee from the Health Board to treat them psychologically and physically.
The committee submits a detailed report on the abuser’s condition to the court to decide whether to release him or his need for further treatment.
However, until now, there is no “psycho-social clinic” that the law recognizes, so the abuser spends his sentence in prison and is released without receiving any kind of treatment.
Often, he is arrested again when he is released from prison on charges of drug abuse again.
The investigator went to the co-chair of the Health Board, Jiwan Mustafa, to ask him about the tasks that the Board has in dealing with cases of drug abuse, according to the drug law.
Mustafa said that preparations were underway to form a specialized committee to study and treat cases of drug abuse, and to establish a sanitarium to treat drug abusers, but the Turkish attack in 2019 prevented this from being achieved.
“There is a new study of a project to build a sanitarium by the Board, and the clinic will treat drug abusers,” he confirmed.
However, until clinics specialized in treating addiction become available in the region, which suffers from a severe shortage of health facilities, Youssef and other hundreds of drug abusers will remain without treatment, and they may again fall prey to drug traffickers after they leave prison to return to it again.
Also, the roads to the “drug world” will remain passable to and from the regions of northeastern Syria until the security control map is clear and the state of overlapping areas of influence is concluded.