QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – On December 23, US President Joe Biden signed a defense spending bill that includes a proposal to combat Captagon trade in the areas controlled by the Syrian government.
The proposal to target Syria’s alleged production and export of Captagon was included in the US annual defense spending bill for 2023. Biden approved military spending of nearly $858 billion for 2023 – roughly 10 percent more than the year before, as lawmakers look to account for inflation and boost the nation’s military competitiveness with China and Russia.
Officially, the US bill is known as the “H.R. 6265 Captagon Act” and includes a requirement for the US government to formulate a mechanism to target the trade by the Syrian government.
Recently, Syria has garnered world attention as a transit, manufacturer, and exporter of Captagon. While before the war it was partially used against enemy countries, the drug makes right now the main resource of a thriving trade for the government and its Iranian allies.
Before the war that has been ravaging the country since 2011, Syria had been a world-famous pharmaceutical producer. Ironically, the country has become the worst producer and exporter of Captagon among other drugs.
In retrospect, the drug was first manufactured in 1961. At the time it was principally used as a milder version of Amphetamine. It has been widely used by the military to enable soldiers to stay awake for long periods and to enhance courage. However, since antiquity, medicine has always been a two-face coin with both utterly different.
When its addictive effects came to the surface, this type of drug ceased in the 1980s, but the dark version of the story still goes relentless. Illegal manufacturing has continued and has recently escalated in the past few years in Europe and the Middle East.
While the country has drawn attention in such an arena during the decade-long conflict and become under the spotlight, Syria’s own story of the drug however dates back to the 1970s when drug manufacturing was still legal. It had brought experts from East Europe to help produce the material.
Within the context of the war in Syria, Captagon was widely used by militants of the Islamic State Organization (ISIS) and other extremist groups to enhance their soldiers’ abilities. Among other fighting groups in the Syrian crisis, soldiers of the government forces were in dire need of drugs to enhance courage and morale owing to rapid decreases in troops’ numbers amid wide-scale desertions.
Shiite groups loyal to the Syrian government forces or those affiliated with Iran had their share of the drug. The record of the Lebanese Hezbollah of manufacturing and spreading the drug dates to 2006.
While much of the country remains out of the control of the government, Syria has two windows for the drug to exit the country and reach its destination, the Mediterranean in the west and Jordan in the south.
In 2020, Italian police seized tens of millions of Captagon pills at Salerno port with an estimated value of $1 billion. It has been one of the biggest seized drug quantities in history. The cargo had departed from the Syrian port of Latakia.
At the time, the Italian authorities blamed ISIS for the amphetamine smuggling, but analysts pointed the finger at the Syrian government.
In the south of the country, on the border with Syria’s once “cradle of the revolution” (Daraa), the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is the hardest hit by Syria’s exportation of the drug. Jordan is the transit towards the Gulf States where the drug is said to be a much-wanted one.
While smugglers evade customs checkpoints from the Syrian side of the border, Jordanian authorities bear the brunt of standing up to infiltrating and sneaking attempts.
In January, a Jordanian officer was killed in clashes that erupted with smugglers on the border with Syria. In 2021, the Jordanian Armed Forces said they had shot down a drone flying a large number of drugs across the border.
On December 25, the authorities in Jordan announced they found a total of six million pills of Captagon inside two refrigerated lorries dubbed as one of the largest hauls ever intercepted by the Jordanian Customs Department.
While details were sketchy on the operation, available information revealed it was coming from Iraq. Skirmishes between the Jordanian border guards and drug traffickers are becoming more frequent on the border with Syria.
In the Middle East and elsewhere, Captagon is much associated with Sunni jihadists and Shiite fundamentalists. The Jordanian authorities say Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah and other militias who hold sway in southern Syria are behind the smuggling of the banned drugs. Hezbollah denies the accusations, calling them fabricated. The Syrian government categorically denies involvement and says they are doing their utmost to crack down on the drug.
The Syrian authorities have always maintained that they were combating drugs. In recent months, it announced several major interceptions of drugs destined for Gulf markets. When ISIS was controlling large swathes of Syria, the authorities claimed the seized materials were taken from ISIS militants. However, ironically, the drug has been on a notable rise since the territorial defeat of ISIS. The drug is manufactured in small spaces presumably in areas on the Syrian coast.
UN drug experts say Syria has become the region’s main production site for drugs destined for Jordan, Iraq, the Gulf States, and Europe.
Annually, such a trade which takes place at small factories that are not properly and highly equipped for this purpose is expected to generate between $6 and $8 billion.