What Assad's fall has revealed about Syria's trade in the stimulant drug Captagon

BEIRUT (AP) — Since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad, industrial-scale manufacturing facilities of the amphetamine-like stimulant Captagon have been uncovered around the country, which experts say fed a $10 billion annual global trade in the highly addictive drug.

Among the locations used for manufacturing the drug were the Mazzeh air base in Damascus, a car-trading company in Latakia and a factory that once made snack chips in the Damascus suburb of Douma. Government forces seized the factory in 2018.

“Assad’s collaborators controlled this place. After the regime fell ... I came here and found it on fire,” Firas al-Toot, the original owner of the factory, told The Associated Press. “They came at night and lit the drugs on fire but couldn’t burn everything.”

“From here, Captagon pills emerged to kill our people,” Abu Zihab, an activist with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the main group now ruling the country, said while his group gave journalists access to the site.

https://apnews.com/article/syria-captagon-bashar-assad-97c57e94b9cbc1bdc91926b7e85dc981