The drug trade emerged in the ruins of a decade of war, which shattered Syria's economy, reduced most of its people to poverty and left members of Syria's military, political and business elite looking for new ways to earn hard currency and circumvent US economic sanctions
A poster of President Bashar al-Assad hangs from the ruins of a shopping mall in Homs, Syria, June 15, 2014. Powerful associates of Syria’s president are making and selling captagon, an illegal amphetamine, creating a new narcostate on the Mediterranean. (Sergey Ponomarev/The New York Times)
BEIRUT — Built on the ashes of 10 years of war in Syria, an illegal drug industry run by powerful associates and relatives of President Bashar Assad has grown into a multibillion-dollar operation, eclipsing Syria’s legal exports and turning the country into the world’s newest narcostate.
Its flagship product is captagon, an illegal, addictive amphetamine popular in Saudi Arabia and other Arab states. Its operations stretch across Syria, including workshops that manufacture the pills, packing plants where they are concealed for export and smuggling networks to spirit them to markets abroad.
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