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Captagon Drug Networks Adapt and Survive in Middle East After Assad’s Fall

Radwan Awad — Mon, 22 Sep 2025 13:57:11 +0000

In June, Syria’s new interior minister announced on state television that his government had orchestrated a complete crackdown on the drug Captagon.

“We can say that there no longer is any factory that produces Captagon in Syria,” said the minister, Anas Khatab.

But his claim has been followed by a string of high-profile seizures of both Captagon pills and the materials used to make them — including 500 kg of precursor chemicals found outside Damascus earlier this month — raising questions about whether an illicit industry that flourished under the sponsorship of dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime has really been wiped out, or has just gone deeper underground in parts of the country not yet under the control of the transitional government.

Before the fall of Assad in December last year, the U.S. and U.K. had imposed sanctions on senior regime officials for enriching themselves through the production and trafficking of the drug, as well as Iran-backed militia Hezbollah associates “responsible for trafficking it across the Middle East.” (The Assad regime denied accusations that it produced and marketed Captagon.)

Credit: SIRAJ Chemicals used to make Captagon found inside an abandoned drug production facility in Douma, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria.

International experts and drug monitoring agencies say that while large-scale state-sponsored production in Syria has collapsed, small, nimble labs still exist — even as traffickers are also dispersing production and stockpiles of the drug from Syria to neighboring countries with longstanding markets.

“You do still have in Syria small outfits moving around, setting up mobile laboratories, producing stuff, especially down south where the central government’s reach isn’t as strong” said Nicholas Krohley, who runs the Switzerland-based consultancy FrontLine Advisory and co-authored a report on Captagon last year, adding that these “shops” have always struggled to meet demand.

Captagon is particularly popular in the Middle East, especially in Gulf states like Saudi Arabia. In 2021, experts estimated the trade’s yearly potential street value to be at least $5.7 billion. Its spread presents a unique security challenge for law enforcement in the region, as poverty, social insecurity, and war create ready markets for the drug and opportunities for traffickers.

Fighters from the new Syrian government forces uncover Captagon pills hidden inside an electrical power adapter in a facility used to produce Captagon under the previous regime of Bashar al-Assad in Douma, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria.

Caroline Rose, who leads the Captagon Trade Project at the Washington, D.C.-based think tank New Lines Institute, told OCCRP that “in the immediate aftermath of the regime’s fall, the interim government’s counternarcotics strategy was a simple one of interdiction and exposure, seizing the biggest, most obvious Captagon facilities with close ties to the regime (managed by individuals who fled and left the facilities unsupervised) and inviting journalists in for high-level coverage.”

Now, the new administration has the harder task of disrupting the smaller and medium-scale remnants of the trade, said Rose. The remnants were either directly tied to the regime or conduits to it, she said, adding that the new administration “is challenged by the current illicit landscape” as it has reduced capacity to exert control and “enact buy-in from communities along Syria’s coast and borderlands — traditional hubs of Captagon trafficking.” Ports and borders under the former regime’s control became hubs of the trade, benefitting from laxer security.

In June, a spokesman for the General Directorate for Combating Narcotics, a division of the Syrian Ministry of the Interior, told OCCRP’s partner ARIJ that Syrian officials had seized 16 drug shipments bound for neighboring countries and dismantled more than 10 large laboratories and small workshops since the fall of the regime.

Credit: Screenshot of a Facebook post by Syria’s Ministry of the Interior Syria’s Ministry of the Interior announced a Captagon seizure in Al Nabak, Syria, on June 27, 2025.

Abdelhay said that most of the laboratories were located in areas affiliated with the Fourth Division, one of the Assad regime’s most powerful military units, which was sanctioned by the United States in 2020 for running illicit revenue-generation schemes, including for producing and trafficking Captagon. “We also seized more than one laboratory on the Syrian-Lebanese border and in the coastal region,” he added.

On April 12, the Syrian government announced a raid on a warehouse in Latakia, the country’s main Mediterranean port. They uncovered 5,000 iron bars in which about 4 million Captagon pills were hidden, ready for export, in what was reportedly their largest Captagon bust since the removal of Assad. In the following weeks, authorities said they dismantled a Captagon factory in Homs, near the Syrian-Lebanese border, and seized another 4 million tablets in the Latakia area.

The Ministry of the Interior announced the seizure of 500 kg of precursor chemicals for making the drug hidden inside food containers, along with a large quantity of pills outside Damascus this month. This followed the seizure of hundreds of thousands of pills in Aleppo and Daraa a month earlier.

The high profile raids come as senior figures in the military and transitional government call for more international support to fight Captagon networks. According to the Damascus-based media outlet Syria Report, Brigadier General Khaled Eid, Director of the Anti-Narcotics Department at the Ministry of the Interior, told the Annual Captagon Trade Conference in Damascus this August: “We haven’t received any tangible assistance or support yet. We have however enjoyed a degree of coordination and sharing information. We also attended training courses in certain countries. There are many promises, but sanctions remain an obstacle.”

Captagon Spillover Into the Region

The technical knowledge to produce the drug or redeploy laboratories elsewhere has not been wiped out, despite the seizure of large quantities of pills in Syria, according to the New Lines Institute.

Pre-existing production infrastructure in neighboring countries can also potentially be stepped up to take over and feed the unabated demand for the drug.

Credit: Ali Al Ibrahim/SIRAJ, Fighters from the new Syrian government forces inside a Captagon production facility in Douma, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria.

According to the latest World Drug Report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), “several large seizures reported in late 2024 and early 2025 in neighboring countries such as Iraq and Jordan, as well as Saudi Arabia, point to the continued use of established trafficking routes.”

Dr Mousa Daoud Al-Tareefi, president of The Jordan Anti-Drug Society, told OCCRP that in Jordan, “while availability has declined [after the collapse of the regime in Syria], some quantities are still being trafficked, indicating that production and storage may continue in some capacity.”

He added that “part of the decline in Captagon use may be explained by users shifting toward other substances such as crystal meth, synthetic cannabinoids (“Joker”), or misused prescription drugs. These alternatives are increasingly seen in some communities, especially due to ease of access or local production.”

In the suburbs of Beirut, a 28-year-old mechanic who became addicted to Captagon after starting to take it so that he could stay awake at work, said the pills were now “a bit more difficult to find,” and more expensive, but still widely available.

“Before, you could buy a pill for $2 or $3,” he explained, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the social stigma surrounding drug addiction. “Now, some people are selling one for $5 or even $7 depending on the type. If you want something guaranteed, you’ll have to pay more. It’s still available; it’s not rare. You just want to know who’s the real deal and who’s the fraud.”

Experts now wonder if the mass production of the drug will regrow with new patrons. “We don’t know yet who has enough power, will, and room, if they decide to go back to that industry,” said Krohley.

“There is a lot of uncertainty around that,” said Angela Me, chief of research and analysis at UNODC, in an interview with UN News in June. “We see a lot of large shipments going from Syria through, for example, Jordan. There are probably still stocks of the substance being shipped out, but we’re looking at where the production may be shifting to.”

Rose and her colleagues have been ringing alarm bells over the last year about the expansion and diversification of Captagon production “moving closer to destination hubs or valuable transshipment sites in Europe, in order to increase interdiction resiliency or improve revenue opportunities,” she said, although she noted that the spread of Captagon production to other countries is not a new phenomenon.

She told OCCRP that Captagon laboratories were identified last year in Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, Kuwait, and even Germany, and that in Iraq, production had expanded into the country’s north.

The UNODC reported the dismantling of a methamphetamine and Captagon laboratory in the Iraqi Kurdish province of Sulaymaniyah in 2024, and attempts to set-up Captagon production facilities in Iraq’s southern provinces a year prior.

In May, Lebanese authorities busted a clandestine Captagon lab in the Hermel area, near the Syrian border, following the seizure of a truck loaded with equipment for manufacturing Captagon that entered the country in April.

Credit: Lebanese Army, Lebanese authorities dismantled a clandestine Captagon lab in Hermel, near the Syrian border, after seizing a truck in May 2025 loaded with drug-making equipment.

This summer, Yemeni authorities from the internationally recognized government announced the capture of more than 1.5 million pills from Houthi-controlled Sanaa that were destined for Saudi Arabia, where the main consumer market for the drug is concentrated, according to the European Union Drugs Agency.

Major General Mutahhar Al-Shuaibi, director of police in the Yemeni port city of Aden, accused the rival-governing Houthis of establishing a Captagon factory in Al-Mahwit region, northern Yemen, “similar to the factory that was in Syria,” adding that Yemen is now being used as a transit zone for Saudi Arabia-bound Captagon.

Musab Alyassin contributed reporting.

The post Captagon Drug Networks Adapt and Survive in Middle East After Assad’s Fall appeared first on SIRAJ.

Documents Found After the Fall of Assad Show Syrian Intelligence Spying on Journalists

Radwan Awad — Fri, 27 Dec 2024 16:32:35 +0000

Less than two months before the sudden collapse of the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, it was business as usual at the General Intelligence Directorate (GID) — and that included spying on journalists.

In particular, the intelligence agency was looking into Syrian Investigative Reporting for Accountability Journalism (SIRAJ), according to documents discovered at GID headquarters after rebel groups took power on December 8.

SIRAJ is a collective of journalists who have been publishing stories exposing corruption and human rights abuses under the Assad regime since 2019. But the GID documents show that the agency had concocted a sinister theory about them.

“The mentioned platform is merely a front for espionage activities, gathering information and connecting (with) sources to collect intelligence about Syria’s military and security institutions at various levels,” one document reads.

The allegation is untrue, but it reflects the paranoid view of the Assad regime toward independent media — an attitude that often turned violent.

Assad’s security forces abducted hundreds of journalists throughout the war, and Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) said 23 remained in prison the day the regime fell. Another seven journalists “were victims of enforced disappearances — abducted to unknown locations,” the advocacy group said in a statement.

Assad’s regime and its affiliates have killed at least 181 media professionals since 2011, according to RSF.

That was the year protests erupted as part of the “Arab Spring,” when people took to the streets demanding democratic reform across a region dominated by autocratic governments. In Syria, Assad’s forces waged a bloody crackdown, sparking a civil war that has claimed the lives of more than 500,000 people.

But the killing had been going on long before that, and the true number of activists, journalists and other perceived opponents of the regime may never be known.

“Over more than five decades, the Assad dictatorship (became) a machine for making the bodies of their victims disappear in mass graves,” Thibaut Bruttin, RSF’s director general, told OCCRP.

More details of the regime’s crimes have come to light since Assad flew to Moscow the night before rebel forces swept into the capital, Damascus. With Assad gone, his allies in many sections of government fled their offices — including the GID.

The rebel coalition led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has allowed journalists and researchers to sift through mountains of government paperwork, some of which provide a record of the regime’s crimes.

“It was ok to take pictures, but it was prohibited to take the documents out of the office,” said Feras Dalatey, a Syrian investigative journalist who visited the GID headquarters on December 20 and uncovered the file on SIRAJ.

Credit: Ali Ibrahim/SIRAJ

The General Intelligence Directorate in Damascus, Syria.

Spying Approval

The dossier Dalatey discovered shows that the GID appeared to interpret normal journalistic practices carried out by SIRAJ reporters — interviewing people, examining documents — as undercover intelligence work.

“This information is then shared with a network of international Western organizations linked to U.S. and European intelligence agencies,” according to a memo to the GID’s director general.

The claim is odd since SIRAJ publishes its findings on its own website and with media partners, so the information reporters obtain is available to anyone.

The GID memo names “major international organizations collaborating with the so-called dubious platform ‘SIRAJ’ and exchanging information under the pretext of knowledge sharing.”

Included in the list is the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN), an association of non-profit organizations.

“The document misrepresents GIJN’s work and that of investigative journalists” said Emilia Diaz-Struck, the organization’s executive director.

The GID memo focuses on a story published by SIRAJ and OCCRP in September revealing loopholes in the sanctions system, which allowed the Syrian army to obtain Swedish-made trucks.

“Following the publication of these findings, several Swedish politicians and parliamentarians have demanded that the Council of the European Union in Brussels review its policy on sanctions against Syria,” said the GID memo.

On October 17, the GID director general authorized an operation to spy on SIRAJ. The memo requesting that operation shows how the GID’s intelligence network extended outside Syria.

“Instruct our stations abroad to follow up on the matter and provide us with the available information, including detailed identities of the operatives running the suspicious platform under the cover of being journalists,” the author of the memo requested.

The GID general director was Hussam Luqa, who has been sanctioned by the European Union and is nicknamed “The Spider.” His whereabouts are unknown, and he did not respond to questions sent via WhatsApp.

While Luqa approved the operation, it is unclear from the documents what assets were deployed or what specific activities were undertaken. And the regime collapsed soon afterwards.

However, shortly after the memo was written, two armed GID agents showed up at the Damascus workplace of the father of a SIRAJ journalist who lives abroad. They interrogated him for three hours about his son, and searched his phone. For fear of being detained, the journalist’s family left their home for a few days after the interrogation.

Long Road to Justice

As terrifying as that interrogation was, many Syrians suffered much worse under the Assad regime.

The security services were notorious for torturing people to extract information. Prisons were filled with those suspected of working against the regime, while thousands of other people simply disappeared.

With Assad gone and an interim government in place, victims and their families are demanding accountability. But the question remains: What will that look like?

“International justice offers various ways to prosecute Bashar al-Assad for the murders of journalists during the years of repression that followed the popular uprising of 2011,” said Bruttin of RSF. “However, one can hope that the Syrian justice system could do the job in the near future.”

Credit: Imago/Alamy Stock Photo

Protesters demanding the release of detained journalists and activists in Idlib, Syria.

Whatever legal avenue is chosen, Bruttin warned that justice will not arrive anytime soon, as researchers need to identify victims and gather evidence against those responsible.

“A long way awaits all those who want to hold to account those responsible for these heinous crimes,” he said.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has also urged Syria’s new government to pursue accountability for media workers who were murdered and imprisoned during the civil war.

“The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities to take decisive action to ensure the safety of all journalists,” the advocacy group added in a statement.

While the Assad regime is responsible for the killing of at least 181 journalists, according to RSF, another 102 were murdered by other parties. That includes six journalists killed by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, which is now running the country.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham did not respond to a request for comment before publication.

Restoring trust in the judicial system is a priority for the new government, a spokesperson told Al Jazeera. That includes setting up special tribunals to try members and supporters of the Assad regime who “committed crimes against Syrians,” he said.

Additional reporting by David Kenner (ICIJ) and Feras Delatey.

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Panama Papers link Assad’s fixer to arms-dealers and money launderers

sadmin — Wed, 30 Nov 2016 09:59:53 +0000

The New Arab: Marouf, the man the Western media calls Assad’s London fixer for his close links to the Assad regime and the Syrian president’s cousin Rami Makhlouf, appears to be a partner of Fouad al-Zayat, a Syrian arms dealer and money launderer known as the Fat Man; as well as a partner of close financial associates of Bashar al-Assad named in previous New Arab investigations (Part I and Part II).

The investigation shows how Marouf used offshore shell companies to dodge sanctions on Syrian regime associates in 2012 and carry on doing business as usual with his associates, even in the heart of Europe – including reportedly buying expensive jewellery on behalf of Assad’s wife Asma as women and children in Syria die from siege and starvation.

In March 2012, the Guardian published a series of leaked emails in which Asma placed orders with Marouf for goods worth thousands of pounds from Armani and Harrods.

The New Arab cross-examined documents leaked from the offshore consultancy Mossack Fonseca in Panama and the London-based HSBC bank with commercial registration data of a number of Syrian companies, to uncover the relationship between Marouf, Zayat and Assad’s financial circle and sanctions-busting network.
Marouf is a 44-year-old British citizen of Syrian origin living in London. He was previously named in WikiLeaksdocuments highlighting his correspondence with the Presidential Palace in Syria in 2012.
Marouf is one of three businessmen that independent analysts believe controls the Syrian economy, together alongside Mohammed Hamcho and Rami Makhlouf.

He owns (AR) dozens of companies, both in Syria and abroad and is involved in various sectors, from real estate and tourism to machinery and technology.

He is a partner of Bashar’s cousin and Syria’s “thief-in-chief” Rami Makhlouf in both the Syria Holding Company, and the Sham Holding Company, the largest company in Syria with a capital of over $360 million.

Marouf is one of three businessmen that independent analysts believe controls the Syrian economy, together alongside Mohammed Hamcho and Rami Makhlouf

According to official EU sanctions announcement, Marouf is a support of the Syrian regime, a “businessman close to President Bashar al-Assad’s family.” He owns shares in the listed TV station Dounya TV and is close to Muhammad Nasif Khayrbik, who has been designated.

However, the EU lifted sanctions on Marouf in mid-2014 for “lack of evidence,” following a verdict from an EU appellate court, but kept sanctions in place against companies Marouf has shares in, such as Sham Holding andDounya TV.

Soulieman Marouf – TNA artist impression

The offshore cloak

Following the start of the Syrian rebellion in 2011, Marouf closed down some of his companies, and renamed others in Damascus, London and other capitals where he is active. He even deleted the website of his main company Al-Shahba, all in an attempt to efface traces of his work, history, and links in anticipation of international sanctions.

However, official records in Syria, the Panama Papers and company records in Britain, accessible by the public, make it possible to uncover the real identity of these companies.

Documents issued by the British Virgin Islands through Mossack Fonseca establish Marouf as owner of a number of offshore companies sponsored by the Panamanian consultancy.

The companies Marouf co-owns and manages secretly include Gardania Enterprises Limited, funded in 2011; SJW Holdings, Kewside Limited and Forlan Assets Limited, established in 2012; and Oriental Trading and Industrial Company Limited and Riverville Development Limited, both real estate companies active in Britain, Europe and beyond since 2014.

A month before the EU sanctions were imposed, Marouf transfered shares to his wife – TNA

Marouf is linked to other companies in the British Virgin Islands, including Yearsett Limited, Tatwoth Limited, Meriott Limited and Hallmount Limited, companies that own real estate, restaurant and night club projects in Britain and Europe.

These companies are linked to Marouf’s Syria-based company Al-Shahba.

According to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), real estate is one of the most common channels for money laundering activities.

According to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), real estate is one of the most common channels for money laundering activities

All the President’s men

Previously unknown hidden offshore companies in which Marouf is involved can also be revealed by The New Arab through data on ten bank accounts at HSBC, including Woodbourne Corporation (BVI) LTD, R&H Trust Co. (BVI) LTD, Morgan Kenneth Wallace and Kegal Investments.

Following the so-called Swiss Leaks last year, the bank had to pay huge fines to the authorities in Geneva over its dubious activities and links to shady figures.

Marouf does business with HSBC in Britain, but it is the Swiss branch that is linked to his offshore dealings. HSBC in Switzerland is Marouf’s partner in the Gardinia Company registered in the British Virgin Islands, for example.

One of Marouf’s HSBC-linked dealings – TNA

Other banks play a similar role, including Jersey-based Standard Bank Nominees (C.I) Limited, which co-owns Oriental Trading with Marouf.

Soulieman Marouf’s partners include his father Mahmoud and members of his family Ali and Muna, but also members of the Kanaan family including senior officers in the regime’s military and security apparatus, linked to Marouf through his companies and bank accounts.

More importantly, Marouf is reported to have direct ties to the Syrian president, beginning in the 1990s when Assad was just a medical student in London.

But the data leaked from Marouf’s secret bank accounts in 2015 with HSBC in Switzerland, which cover the period 1997-2000, paint a clearer picture of his association to his friend’s regime. Soon after Assad took power in 2000, at least five accounts in the bank emerge, ostensibly linking the two parties.

Other publicly available documents establish Marouf as a major shareholder and board member of the Syria International Islamic Bank (SIIB), along with Ihab Makhouf, Rami’s brother and cousin of Bashar al-Assad.

Marouf is reported to have direct ties to the Syrian president, beginning in the 1990s when Assad was a medical student in London

The US Department of the Treasury designated SIIB for acting for or on behalf of the Commercial Bank of Syria and providing services to the Syrian Lebanese Commercial Bank, both of which are subject to US and international sanctions.

SIIB, the US says, has acted as a front for the Commercial Bank of Syria, which has allowed that bank – Syria’s largest commercial bank – to circumvent sanctions against it by the United States, the European Union and the Arab League.

However, the EU lifted the sanctions on the bank in mid-2014 based on the same verdict that led to the annulment of sanctions against Marouf.

Marouf is a direct associate of Rami Makhlouf himself, as mentioned earlier. In addition to Sham Holding, they are partners in the Islamic Company for International Mediation and Services, founded in 2008. Rami Makhlouf’s investment in this company comes through his US- and EU-designated firm Ramak TP.

The New Arab can also reveal, based on Syrian company registration records, a direct partnership between Marouf, and regime-linked businessmen Mohammed Hamcho and Khaled Qaddourthrough Tatwir, a contracting company founded in 2008 in Syria.

SIIB, in which Marouf is a shareholder, has acted as a front for the Commercial Bank of Syria, which has allowed that bank to circumvent sanctions against it by the United States, the European Union and the Arab League

‘The Fat Man’

Soulieman Marouf is a supporter of the propaganda calling for the repression of protesters in Syria though television channels he owns, wrote Mossack Fonseca’s compliance director in one of the documents examined byThe New Arab.

The email, addressed to senior management in the consultancy, also pointed out suspicions regarding money laundering activities involving Marouf. Nevertheless, Mossack Fonseca did not end its dealings with the businessman according to the same documents.

These suspicions might help explain the association between Marouf and controversial figure Fouad Michael Zayat (75), aka the Fat Man, a known conman, arms dealer and gambler.

Fouad Zayat – TNA artist impression

Zayat, a Syrian who also holds Lebanese, Cypriot and Portuguese passports, was convicted last year by a Greek court and sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia over money laundering counts in Greece.

He has been a wanted man in Europe since 2015, and is hiding in Syria according to Greek police. The case involved former Greek interior minister Dinos Michaelides and his son Michalis, who were sentenced to 15 years in prison on counts of bribery and money laundering through Zayat’s offshore bank accounts and companies.

This was in relation to the purchase of TOR-M1 anti-aircraft missiles by Greece during Akis Tsohatzopoulos’ term as Greek defence minister.

The New Arab can reveal that Zayat is a partner of Mahmoud Marouf, Soulieman’s father, through the Halsey Management Limited company registered in the British Virgin Islands.

The New Arab can reveal that Zayat is a partner of Mahmoud Marouf, Soulieman’s father, through the Halsey Management Limited company registered in the British Virgin Islands

An urgent email sent by Mossack Fonseca asks the British branch to be careful about dealing with Zayat, citing how he defrauded the Iranian government over a deal to purchase Airbus planes, using the funds to pay off gambling debts without delivering the planes.

The man and his daughter Sara had their assets frozen in London in 2008 because of this case, but it was not pursued further, allowing him to flee.

The Sunday Times quoted Zayat in 2007 as claiming that he was kidnapped by Iranian Revolutionary Guards in 2004 in Beirut, and was held at the Iranian embassy until he pledged to return the funds he took from Iran.

According to documents obtained by the author of this investigation, Zayat’s activities were moved through offshore holdings to Cyprus and Lebanon, through companies owned by him, his daughter, his sons, and other associates.

These include FN Aviation Systems Limited, Samata Limited and Gol Sun Leisure (CY) Limited (Cyprus). And Tan Oil, Zaficorp Petroleum, Homaco Lebanon, Technology Maintenance Center, Lextim, Sky Link Exectuive, Gulf Transport Utilities among others, all offshore companies based out of Lebanon.

Neither Soulieman Marouf nor Fouad Zayat and their representatives have answered requests for comments by the time of publication.

Some companies in Lebanon owned by Zayat (AR) – TNA

Original Arabic investigation by Nizar al-Ghazali.
Additional translation and writing by Karim Traboulsi.

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