Global Courant 2023-05-09 17:13:27
Captagon has played a major role in regional diplomatic discussions as some Arab countries seek to normalize relations with Syria.
The amphetamine-type addictive stimulant mass-produced in Syria and smuggled into the Gulf states appeared to be a bargaining chip for President Bashar al-Assad in talks to restore Arab League membership in Syria as countries tried to curb the illegal drug trade.
At a May 1 meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Amman, Damascus agreed to work with Jordan and Iraq to identify sources of drug production and smuggling, according to a statement from the Jordanian foreign ministry.
A week later, a high-profile Syrian drug smuggler and his family were killed in an airstrike blamed on Jordan in southern Syria.
Here’s what you need to know about the drug and why it’s so important lately:
Where was Captagon invented?
Captagon was the brand name of a psychoactive drug produced in the 1960s by the German company Degussa Pharma Gruppe. It was mainly prescribed as a treatment for attention deficit disorder, narcolepsy and as a central nervous system stimulant.
Captagon tablets contain phenetylline, a synthetic drug of the phenethylamine family, which also includes amphetamine.
In 1986, phenetylline was included in Schedule II of the 1971 United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances, and most countries stopped using Captagon. The International Narcotics Control Board said in 2011 that no country had produced phenetylline since 2009.
But production didn’t really stop, did it?
When official production ceased, some of the remaining supplies from Eastern Europe, especially Bulgaria, were smuggled to the Middle East.
Finally, new counterfeit tablets labeled Captagon were produced in Bulgaria in the 1990s to early 2000s, according to a 2018 report report by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction. The drugs were then smuggled out of the country to the Arabian Peninsula by criminal networks from the Balkans and Turkey.
Strict action against the production by the Turkish and Bulgarian authorities, including the closure of 18 mostly large-scale laboratories dedicated to amphetamine synthesis, resulted in a drastic reduction in trade from the Balkans.
A customs officer shows Captagon pills, part of the 789 kg (1,739 pounds) of drugs seized, before the 2007 burning in Sofia, Bulgaria (Nikolay Doychinov)
Why is Syria now making so much Captagon?
In 2011, following a ruthless government crackdown on anti-Assad protesters, Syria descended into civil war. Internationally isolated and ravaged by fighting, the country fell into an economic crisis.
While Damascus denies any involvement in the trade, observers say the production and smuggling of the drug has earned al-Assad, his associates and allies billions of dollars as they searched for an economic lifeline.
This is reported by a New Lines Institute reportthe Syrian government uses “local alliance structures with other armed groups such as Hezbollah for technical and logistical support in the production and trade of Captagon”.
Experts say the majority of global Captagon production is now in Syria, with the wealthy Gulf states as the primary destination.
What are Jordan and the Gulf States doing about it?
Since last year, countries with large amounts of Captagon have stepped up their borders to contain the flow from Syria.
In February 2022, the Jordanian military said it had killed 30 smugglers since the beginning of the year and thwarted attempts to smuggle 16 million Captagon pills into the kingdom from Syria — more than the total volume seized in 2021.
In late August 2022, Saudi authorities carried out their largest seizure when they discovered 46 million amphetamine pills being smuggled hidden in a shipment of flour.
A spokesman for the Suadi General Directorate of Narcotics Control said it was the “largest operation of its kind to smuggle this amount of narcotics into the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in one go”.
In February 2023, a man was arrested at Abu Dhabi airport in the United Arab Emirates after attempting to smuggle 4.5 million Captagon tablets in cans of green beans.
What is the rest of the world doing?
Although the drug is relatively unknown outside of the Middle East, countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States have raised concerns about its production in Syria.
Both countries have this year imposed new sanctions on Syrians involved in the trade. According to a statement from the British government, 80 percent of the world’s Captagon is produced in Syria and is a “financial lifeline” for the al-Assad regime “worth about 3 times the combined trade of the Mexican cartels”.
It also stated that Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed militias are facilitating the industry “thus fueling regional instability and fueling a growing addiction crisis across the region.”
In December 2022, the US also introduced the Captagon Act, which requires US agencies to target the illicit trade amid fears the drug could appear on US shores.
How did Captagon get Syria back into the Arab League?
The desire of Arab League members to halt Captagon production and trade from Syria appears to have been a crucial bargaining tool for Damascus.
A Jordanian official said at the May 1 meeting of Arab foreign ministers that Syria should show that it is serious about reaching a political solution, as this would be a precondition for lobbying for the lifting of the Western sanctions, a crucial step for financing reconstruction in Syria. .
Saudi Arabia, which remains the largest market for the drug, also sought reassurance as it discussed normalizing ties with Damascus.
The kingdom supported rebel groups that fought against government forces in the early years of the war. But more recently it has shown a desire to soften relations as part of a wider shift in regional diplomacy, including rapprochement with Iran.
After the meeting in Amman, the foreign ministers of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syria said Damascus had agreed to “take the necessary steps to end smuggling at the borders with Jordan and Iraq”.
So who was the drug kingpin killed in Syria?
Foreign ministers of the Arab League, which consists of 22 countries, voted for Syria’s return at a meeting in Cairo on Sunday.
Just a day later, Marai al-Ramthan, a suspected Syrian drug smuggler, and his family were killed in an airstrike in southern Syria, an attack that one war observer has blamed on Jordan.
Al-Ramthan was considered “the most prominent drug trafficker in the region and the number one smuggler of drugs, including Captagon, into Jordan,” according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
