Millions of captagon pills destroyed by Syrian security forces
Syrian security forces destroyed seized drugs on January 19th including around 100 million captagon pills, with the production and trafficking of the drug growing during the Bashar al-Assad regime, according to an official.
An AFP investigation from 2022 found that during Assad’s leadership, the then $10-billion captagon industry overshadowed other exports and funded Assad’s regime as well as his enemies, The New Arab and agencies reported.
Official Badr Youssef said: “We destroyed large quantities of narcotic pills.” Youssef explained that this included “about 100 million captagon pills and 10 to 15 tonnes of hashish” as well as the raw materials used to make captagon.
The official SANA news Agency said: “the anti-narcotics department of the (interior) ministry is destroying narcotic substances seized at the headquarters of the Fourth Division.”
An AFP photographer saw security members in a Fourth Division warehouse put dozens of bags containing pills and other drugs into trucks, before taking them to be burned in a field. The fourth division, which is now inoperative, was reportedly a “notorious” division of the Syrian army, controlled by Maher, Assad’s brother.
On December 8th, Assad was ousted by rebels following a lightning offensive that continued for under a fortnight. As the new authorities took control of Damascus, the army and Assad’s security organization collapsed.
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SANA reported on January 18th that authorities seized “a huge warehouse belonging to the former regime” in the city of Latakia. SANA reported that the factory “specialised in packing captagon pills into children’s toys and furniture”.
On January 19th, an AFP photographer went to the warehouse near the port and saw security members taking apart children’s bicycles, which contained the pills.
Captagon pills were reportedly also put inside objects, including doors, shisha water pipes and car parts.
Security official in Latakia, Abu Rayyan, said that “about 50 to 60 million captagon pills” had been seized which”belonged to the Fourth Division.”
Rayyan added: “This is the largest such warehouse in the area.”
Rayyan also said the drugs were packed to be sent off from Latakia “to neighbouring countries”, and that these drugs would be destroyed.
On October 17th 2024, Iraqi authorities announced that they had seized over half a million captagon pills, as reported by The Arab Weekly and agencies.
The New Arab and agencies, The Arab Weekly and agencies, SANA News Agency
