Syria destroys millions of captagon pills

Syrian security forces destroyed seized drugs Sunday including around 100 million pills of the amphetamine-like stimulant captagon — whose production and trafficking flourished under ousted president Bashar al-Assad, an official said.

A 2022 AFP investigation found that Syria under Assad had become a narco state, with the $10-billion captagon industry dwarfing all other exports and funding both his regime and many of his enemies. "We destroyed large quantities of narcotic pills," said official Badr Youssef, including "about 100 million captagon pills and 10 to 15 tonnes of hashish" as well as raw materials used to produce captagon.

He spoke from the Damascus headquarters of the defunct Fourth Division where the drugs were seized. The Fourth Division, a notorious branch of the Syrian army, was controlled by Assad's brother Maher.

The official SANA news agency said "the anti-narcotics department of the (interior) ministry is destroying narcotic substances seized at the headquarters of the Fourth Division".