Documents and communications discovered at a Captagon factory in Syria, following the downfall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, have unveiled the involvement of companies operating under the UAE regime in exporting Captagon from Syria to Gulf countries.
The documents indicate that Captagon exports were disguised as fruit and vegetable trade through UAE-based companies headquartered in Dubai, including “Areeha General Trading Company.”
According to records retrieved from a military warehouse near the Syrian capital, Damascus, where boxes filled with Captagon pills were also found, Maher al-Assad, the brother of the deposed Syrian president, personally oversaw this illicit trade.
In recent years, Saudi authorities have frequently announced the interception of millions of Captagon pills hidden in fruit shipments arriving from Lebanon via the Al-Batha border crossing between Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Lebanese parties, including Hezbollah, have been accused of smuggling drugs from Syria into Lebanon and subsequently disguising them as vegetable and fruit shipments bound for Gulf countries. This has led to intermittent bans on agricultural exports from Lebanon, adversely impacting the region.
The developments in Syria in 2011, coupled with Lebanon’s political and economic collapse, have fueled the proliferation of the Captagon trade across the region.
Captagon has become a cornerstone of the Syrian regime’s economy, generating billions of dollars annually. In 2020 alone, Syria’s Captagon exports reached a market value of no less than $3.46 billion. By 2021, the Captagon trade in the Middle East exceeded $5 billion, according to a report by the Washington-based Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy.
The Arab Political and Economic Networks Observatory, which monitors Captagon trade, estimates that the Assad regime earned an average of $2.4 billion annually from this trade between 2020 and 2022.
Estimates also suggest that drug smuggling profits through Lebanon were nearly double Syria’s export revenues.
In 2023, the United States enacted the “Captagon Act” in response to the surge in Captagon production and usage. The act identifies Captagon as a “security threat” and directly links its trade to the Assad regime.
The U.S. Treasury Department added six individuals, including two of Assad’s cousins, to its sanctions list for their involvement in Captagon production and distribution.
Observers note that Syria, labeled as a “global leader” in Captagon production by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), accounts for 80% of the global supply of this narcotic.
A report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime states that Syria and Lebanon serve as the primary hubs for Captagon shipments. The report highlights that these shipments reach Gulf states either directly via land or sea routes, or indirectly through other regions, often with the full cooperation of companies operating under the UAE regime.
