Damascus — In a remote corner outside Damascus, a now-abandoned potato chip factory shed light on one of the Bashar al-Assad ousted The regime harbors many dark but open secrets.
A CBS News crew accessed the site and discovered a warehouse stocked with industrial-scale hydrochloric acid and acetic acid, chemical precursors needed to make the chemicals. Captagonone of the most popular street drugs in the Middle East and beyond.
Ahmed Abu Yakin is with Syria Hayat Tahrir al-Shamor HTS, one of main groups in charge of the country after Assad fled December 8. Yakin says this massive underground Captagon hideout was discovered just days after the rebel group took control. The pills were stored in large stacks of home voltage regulator kits ready to be shipped.
Often referred to as “poor man’s cocaine,” Captagon is a highly addictive amphetamine-type stimulant.
“We feel bad for the young people who were addicted to it,” Yakin said. “The Assad regime was destroying a generation and didn’t care. They only cared about making money.”
And this money is staggering. Analysts estimate that Assad’s regime has raked in $5 billion a year from trade, dwarfing Syria’s official budget and making it a vital lifeline for the failed state. The drug costs just pennies to make, but can sell for up to $20 for a single pill. The haul seen at the abandoned factory is potentially worth tens of millions of dollars.
For years, neighboring countries have accused Assad’s Syria of being the world’s main supplier of illegal drugs. In March 2023, the US Treasury Department sanctioned several Syrians for their alleged involvement in “dangerous amphetamine”, including two cousins of Assad.
“Syria has become a world leader in the production of the highly addictive Captagon, much of which is trafficked through Lebanon,” Andrea Gacki, who was then director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of the Treasury. “Together with our allies, we will hold accountable those who support the regime of Bashar al-Assad with illicit drug revenues and other financial means that allow the regime to continue to repress the Syrian people.”
Today, his extremely lucrative drug trade appears to have been crushed, as does his brutal and corrupt regime. For Yakin, Captagon has no place in Syria’s future.
“We will destroy everything,” Yakin said. “We will eliminate everything that has to do with drugs and everything that has to do with the criminal Assad regime.”
Imtiaz Tyab
