Syria-Hezbollah Captagon Smuggling to the Gulf Continues

 

UAE police say they have seized $1 billion worth of Captagon amphetamines hidden in doors

Excerpts from Associated Press report

September 14, 2023

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Police in Dubai seized 86 million tablets of the amphetamine known as Captagon hidden in a shipment of doors and decorative building panels, authorities said Thursday, estimating its street value at just over $1 billion. The bust comes as sales of the amphetamine have become a Mideast-wide problem during Syria's long war. 

A surveillance video released by the Interior Ministry in the United Arab Emirates shows suspects trying to bring the Captagon tablets through Dubai's massive Jebel Ali Port. They were hidden in five shipping containers of doors and panels, with the drugs themselves weighing over 13 tons, authorities said.

Authorities did not identify the arrested suspects but described their operation as an “international criminal organization,” without saying the source of the drugs. A Dubai police anti-narcotics official said the drugs were to be transferred to an unidentified third nation.

The value of the seizure given by authorities put the price of a pill at nearly $12. Costs can be as high as $25 a pill in neighboring Saudi Arabia.

Syria has become the world’s leading trafficker of Captagon, a highly addictive amphetamine, during the war. Hundreds of millions of pills have been smuggled over the years into Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab countries, where the drug is used recreationally and by people with physically demanding jobs to keep them alert.

Syrian President Bashar Assad, his family and his ally, Lebanon’s Iranian Hezbollah group, stand accused of facilitating and profiting from the trade. They say that has given Assad’s rule a massive financial lifeline at a time when the Syrian economy is crumbling. Hezbollah has been documented to manufacture the drug in the Lebanese Bekaa Valley. Manufacturing sites exist also in Syria from where they are transferred through the lawless Lebanese border into Lebanon, then smuggled by air from Beirut Airport or by sea from Beirut Harbor, often inside oranges or other fruits, or other commodities destined for the Arab Gulf.

Gulf Arab nations, after backing rebels trying to overthrow Assad at the start of the war, have since resumed diplomatic relations with Damascus. Analysts suggest that's likely in part due to their efforts to stem the flow of Captagon regionally.