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Addictive Drug Captagon Is Financial Savior of Hizbullah and Syria

[Beirut] It has been known for years that Hizbullah uses the drug-trafficking industry as one of its biggest sources of income. Under orders of Iran, the Lebanese militia has had a major role in this illegal trade, creating a network for smuggling and money laundering that expands from Africa to the Americas. First it was cannabis, but now the Iranian-backed group is expanding into harder and more addictive drugs.

“We can say that the hashish and Captagon trade is one of the most important sources of funding for Hizbullah under the direction of Iran,” according to Taim Alhajj Hazza, a Syrian investigative journalist who has produced many investigative reports and political files about this issue that has become more prominent in recent years.

As the conflict in Syria continues, the country has become a narcostate.

“Thousands of narcotic pills are being prepared in small laboratories near the Syrian seaports, in order to be exported to other countries in the world,” Alhajj Hazza told The Media Line. “These operations are carried out by senior military men, financiers and militia leaders allied with Bashar al-Assad,” he added.

What they are producing is Captagon, which is the brand name for the drug compound fenethylline hydrochloride first produced in West Germany in the 1960s. It was created as a treatment for attention deficit disorder, narcolepsy and depression. Due to its addictive properties, the drug was banned two decades later but that was too late for the Middle East, where a regional network started producing and smuggling millions of pills.

Captagon is the newest drug to become Hizbullah’s specialty.

“The Captagon trade in Syria has extensive roots in Lebanon, as the Syrian Fourth Division [led by Bashar al Assad’s youngest brother, Maher] and regime-aligned narcoentrepreneurs have forged deep alliances with Hizbullah, using Lebanon as a key transit route and production site for the trade,” said Caroline Rose, author of The Captagon Threat: A Profile of Illicit Trade, Consumption and Regional Realities.

“Captagon smugglers have used Lebanese ports, exploited corrupt governing systems, and have established small-scale, mobile Captagon laboratories along the Qalamoun mountain range that can easily shift over the Lebanese-Syrian border,” she told The Media Line.

We can say that the hashish and Captagon trade is one of the most important sources of funding for Hizbullah under the direction of Iran

To do this, Hizbullah has bought land and properties on the eastern border with Syria, where most of the Captagon factories are located. Some of the areas in this Lebanese region have been declared closed military zones that do not allow access for official Lebanese authorities or to anyone not affiliated with Hizbullah. Lebanon’s militia is very much in need of the money that comes from this trade since its main funder, Iran, has been severely hurt by Western economic sanctions.

The drying up of the armed Shia group’s financial resources has increased its need to access foreign currency; so, in a sign of desperation, Hizbullah has turned to Captagon. Despite already being involved in the transnational drug trade before the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, the conflict has granted Hizbullah with the opportunity to consolidate its position, as borders become more porous and the Syrian port of Latakia remains completely accessible.

The Syrian government also is in great need of income. Assad has found a solution in Captagon.

“It is generating millions of dollars for the Syrian regime and its allies, at a time when 90% of the population in Syria is living below the poverty line, according to the United Nations,” according to Alhajj Hazza.

There are no official figures, but the Captagon trade is estimated to be at least a $10 billion industry. Syria is responsible for 80% of the world’s supply, meaning that the trade is at least worth three times the country’s entire national budget.

The drug is shipped to the Gulf and, mainly, to Saudi Arabia. The expensive prices of alcohol, with smuggled whiskey costing around $800, have made the purchase of Captagon very popular. In Syria, the drug costs around half a dollar, but in the Gulf it is sold for prices that range between $10 and $15. At least 400 million pills were seized in the Middle East and beyond during last year.

“Syria is the trade’s greatest hub and, while Lebanese Hizbullah plays a role in the trade and weak rule of law enables certain levels of Captagon smuggling, the Lebanese state at large is entirely complicit in the trade,” said Rose. But the scholar does not believe that “the expansion of the Captagon will seriously affect the flow of aid to Lebanon.”

Syria is the trade’s greatest hub and, while Lebanese Hizbullah plays a role in the trade and weak rule of law enables certain levels of Captagon smuggling, the Lebanese state at large is entirely complicit in the trade

For the moment, both the Gulf countries and Lebanon have been trying to cut off the continuing growth of the Captagon industry. “As to a counter-Captagon strategy, the Lebanese government has implemented a series of interdictions of it at maritime ports and airports,” Rose explained. These efforts have not been very successful, though, because the drug – since it is very easy to produce – keeps reaching new, as well as old, places.

“The United States passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which included a provision to establish an interagency strategy to monitor and disrupt the Assad regime’s profits from the Captagon trade,” she added.

But the lack of a clear international policy to counter the production and trade of this drug is already taking a toll on Syria’s population.

“Assad and his allies have contributed to the destruction of an entire generation of young men who have become addicted to this poison and trade in it,” concluded Alhajj Hazza.