Social media video surfaced Wednesday allegedly showing a warehouse in Syria stacked with captagon, an illicit drug that had transformed the country into a narco-state under former President Bashar al-Assad’s rule.
The large warehouse was reportedly located at the headquarters of a military division near Damascus that was commanded by Assad’s brother Maher. The source is unable immediately to verify the location.
A voice commenting over the video says that it is “one of the largest warehouse facilities of captagon manufacturing of pills.” Piles of pills are seen on the floor along with drug-making equipment.
If confirmed, the discovery would support claims by the United States and others that the Assad regime had been involved in actively exporting the drug. Captagon has become a significant social problem in neighboring Arab nations and spurred some of them to engage in talks with the former Syrian regime to curb its trafficking.
It is a highly addictive drug, mostly containing amphetamine, that is sometimes described as the “poor man’s cocaine.” Studies over recent years have estimated the annual trade in the drug to be worth billions of dollars. It is believed to have become an economic lifeline for the Assad regime while it was under crippling American sanctions.
