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'A dirty business': how one drug is turning Syria into a narco-state
Source: The Guardian
‘A dirty business’: how one drug is turning Syria into a narco-state
Manufacture of Captagon is a growth industry so big it is starting to rival GDP of flatlining economy
Martin Chulov Middle East correspondent
Fri 7 May 2021 10.54 BST
In the summer of 2015 a businessman in the Syrian province of Latakia was approached by a powerful security chief, seeking a favour. The official wanted the merchant, an importer of medical supplies, to source large amounts of a drug called fenethylline from abroad. The regime, he said, would readily buy the lot.
After an internet search, the merchant made a decision. He left his home that same week, first sending his wife and children to exile, then following after, scrounging what he could from his businesses for a new start. “I know what they were asking me to do,” he said from his new home in Paris. “They wanted the main ingredient for Captagon. And that drug is a dirty business.”
Other businessmen in Syria’s north have not shared his reservations. The manufacture of Captagon in the regime heartland has become one of Syria’s only recent business success stories; a growth industry so big and sophisticated that it is starting to rival the GDP of the flatlining economy itself.
From the ruins of Syria, and the similarly disastrous collapse across the border in Lebanon, where in late April a shipment of Captagon hidden in pomegranates and exported from Beirut was found by Saudi officials, a reality is crystallising: both countries are fast becoming narco-states - if they have not met that definition already.
-snip-
Manufacture of Captagon is a growth industry so big it is starting to rival GDP of flatlining economy
Martin Chulov Middle East correspondent
Fri 7 May 2021 10.54 BST
In the summer of 2015 a businessman in the Syrian province of Latakia was approached by a powerful security chief, seeking a favour. The official wanted the merchant, an importer of medical supplies, to source large amounts of a drug called fenethylline from abroad. The regime, he said, would readily buy the lot.
After an internet search, the merchant made a decision. He left his home that same week, first sending his wife and children to exile, then following after, scrounging what he could from his businesses for a new start. “I know what they were asking me to do,” he said from his new home in Paris. “They wanted the main ingredient for Captagon. And that drug is a dirty business.”
Other businessmen in Syria’s north have not shared his reservations. The manufacture of Captagon in the regime heartland has become one of Syria’s only recent business success stories; a growth industry so big and sophisticated that it is starting to rival the GDP of the flatlining economy itself.
From the ruins of Syria, and the similarly disastrous collapse across the border in Lebanon, where in late April a shipment of Captagon hidden in pomegranates and exported from Beirut was found by Saudi officials, a reality is crystallising: both countries are fast becoming narco-states - if they have not met that definition already.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/07/drug-captagon-turning-syria-into-narco-state
1 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
astronomical.
"In February 2020, the UAE found 35 million Captagon pills in a shipment of electricity cables from Syria to Jebel Ali.[35]
In April 2020, Saudi Arabia seized 44.7 million Captagon pills smuggled from Syria.[36]
On 1 July 2020, an anti-drug operation coordinated in Italy by the Italian Guardia di Finanza and Customs and Monopolies Agency seized 14 tonnes of amphetamines, labeled as Captagon, smuggled from Syria and initially hypothesized by the Italian authorities to have been produced by ISIS,[37][38][39] which were found in three shipping containers filled with around 84 million pills, in the southern port of Salerno.[37][38][39][40]
In November 2020, Egypt managed to seize two shipments of Captagon pills at Damietta port coming from Syria, the first had 3,251,500 tablets,[41] while the second contained 11 million tablets.[42]
In December 2020, Italian authorities seized at Napoli about 14 tonnes of Captagon arriving from Latakia, Syria and heading towards Libya, including about 84 million pills, worth around $1 billion.[43]"
In April 2020, Saudi Arabia seized 44.7 million Captagon pills smuggled from Syria.[36]
On 1 July 2020, an anti-drug operation coordinated in Italy by the Italian Guardia di Finanza and Customs and Monopolies Agency seized 14 tonnes of amphetamines, labeled as Captagon, smuggled from Syria and initially hypothesized by the Italian authorities to have been produced by ISIS,[37][38][39] which were found in three shipping containers filled with around 84 million pills, in the southern port of Salerno.[37][38][39][40]
In November 2020, Egypt managed to seize two shipments of Captagon pills at Damietta port coming from Syria, the first had 3,251,500 tablets,[41] while the second contained 11 million tablets.[42]
In December 2020, Italian authorities seized at Napoli about 14 tonnes of Captagon arriving from Latakia, Syria and heading towards Libya, including about 84 million pills, worth around $1 billion.[43]"
I mean you're talking 250 MILLION pills seized in 10 months. Imagine how much must be being made?!?
WOW.
I wonder what that stuff is like
