Bashar's Breaking Bad: Inside Syria's State-Sponsored Narco Terrorism Industry

Amir Mizroch: 0:00

The attack on Israel on the 7th of October by Hamas, unprecedented in its scope and brutality and really really bad enough as it is. But there was one part of the story which caught my attention was the use of this drug called Captagon by Hamas terrorists who came over the border. I'm not sure how much of that is confirmed and true and how many of them used this drug, but the potential use of this drug really caught my attention.

Carmit Valensi: 0:28

Men, women, children were tortured, burned and, in some cases, raped and decapitated. But I would like to emphasize here that drugs like Capragon do not turn people into monsters, so I find it quite difficult to explain their atrocity by using this drug and taking the responsibility away from them. We need to talk about the propaganda and the brainwashing to explain those atrocities. I'm Karmit Valensi. I'm the head of the Northern Arena Program at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv University, the INSS. I specialize in Syria and Lebanon. Prior to my work at the INSS, I served at the Research and Analysis Division in the Intelligence Corp, idf.

Amir Mizroch: 1:13

I know you're not a chemist or pharmacologist, but are you able to describe what happens to a person on the chemical level or behavioral level when they take it?

Carmit Valensi: 1:22

Okay, so Keptagon is an amphetamine with a stimulant effect. It typically comes in small white pills. This drug originated in the 60s as a clinical drug used to treat hyperactivity, narcolepsy and depression. And if you ask who are the consumers who usually take this drug, we know that mostly individuals who need to work long hours, such as truck drivers, bus and taxi drivers, and also students. Students often turn to Captagon during exams to help them, you know, stay awake. This is basically what leads young people to consume this drug. This includes feeling of courage, euphoria, energy, enhanced creativity, productivity. It also serves as an appetite suppression. When I talked with some Syrians, they told me that they tend to consume the drug because they don't have enough money to, you know, to buy food. So they prefer to pay $1 in Syria for the Captagon and use it as an appetite suppression, which is insane, but this is what they told me.

Carmit Valensi: 2:19

Some reports also suggest an increase in sexual drive attributed to the release of dopamine in the brain. However, it was banned worldwide in the 80s because of its abuse potential and deadly side effects. One of the problems with this drug is the lack of a standard mark when it comes to what's in the drug, in the components. It's like different producers use whatever they can get their hands on. That means not just simple, cheap components, but sometimes even toxic and dangerous chemicals could lead to a nerve damage, heart problems, messed up blood vessels and even muscle breakdown, and of course, not to mention the psychological and social harm from the addiction. Pretty serious stuff. So yeah, I totally don't recommend using this drug.

Amir Mizroch: 3:03

Yeah, is there a connection here? The brutality of the attack?

Carmit Valensi: 3:07

Well, it's a great question and we've been busy with the same, asking ourselves what led to these atrocities and what allowed them to commit such atrocities. In that horrific morning, October 7th and, as you mentioned, some Israeli media reports suggested that Captagon pills were found in the packets of Hamas terrorists either killed or captured by Israeli forces. A lot of people in Israel, some of them young people who attended the Nova Party, told that they saw something different in their eyes, like crazy. Look in their eyes. They were under euphoria and they claimed that these terrorists consumed the drug before carrying out these inhuman actions.

Carmit Valensi: 3:44

But it's important for me to emphasize we have not received formal confirmation from Israeli authorities regarding the use of Captagon by those elements, but my assumption that there was some use of the drugs, but it wasn't extensive, it wasn't part of, I would say, a grand plan or a strategy that they can be equipped with a drug that you know make them commit those atrocities. We're trying to find an explanation and, in a way, help us to understand that they were under the influence of drugs and help us to explain the brutality and cruelty of their actions and why Israeli men, women, children were tortured, burned and, in some cases, raped and decapitated. But I would like to emphasize here that drugs like Capragon do not turn people into monsters. So I find it quite difficult to you know explain their atrocity by using this drug and taking the responsibility away from them. Those drugs don't turn people into cruel individuals. We need to talk about the propaganda and the brainwashing that they've been going through to explain those atrocities.

Amir Mizroch: 4:50

Captagon seems closely tied to terrorism, terrorist groups. Is that kind of the real danger here?

Carmit Valensi: 4:57

Right. So this is one of the most important issues that we haven't covered so far in our talk the connection or the linkage between narco and terrorism. First time I was exposed to Captagon was when I studied ISIS when it started to operate in Syria back in 2014, 2015,. We know for sure that some of the fighters consumed this drug because it gave them almost superhuman powers, including the ability to stay awake, calm and focused for days. Captagon has been prevalent among Islamic State fighters and other Diyatist fighters, especially in Iraq and Syria.

Amir Mizroch: 5:30

It's done by the government of Bashar Assad, who's building the factories for this distribution and everything. Take us into that.

Carmit Valensi: 5:38

Yeah, this is a very important issue the fact that we're not talking about, you know, independent cartels who operate in a certain territory and handling this drug industry. We're talking about allegedly legitimate regime. Bashar al-Assad regime is switched to drugs in the past few years as main source of income. The regime itself and inner circles, including his family members, like his brother, ammar al-Assad, are profiting from Keptagon. Just to give you an understanding of the sum of money, so Keptagon exports from Syria reach a market value of at least $5 billion, which is huge. I mean, comparing to Syria's largest legal export, olive oil was worth around $120 million a year. So we're talking about at least $5 billion, which is again very dramatic.

Carmit Valensi: 6:30

There is an extensive link between the Captagon trade and Syria's Elite 4 division, which is one of the divisions within the Syrian army led by the brother of Bashar and is in charge of facilitating the movement of the drug across the country. We also know about Hezbollah's involvement in the industry. As you probably remember, hezbollah became very involved in the Syrian crisis in the very early stages of the war. We identified Hezbollah operations in Syria in 2013. They became very involved in this theater and now we know about their involvement in this industry. They're connecting with smugglers and production centers. Obviously, both Hezbollah and Syria, you know, deny any involvement in the Captagon trade. But if you look at the map and today you can find easily online maps of where are the laboratories where they produce the drug and 99% of them located and it's not coincidentally in Bashar al-Assad under his territory, under its own governance and control.

Amir Mizroch: 7:33

They can't trade anything else, right? There's a lot of sanctions against them, so they have become what a narco state.

Carmit Valensi: 7:39

Exactly, exactly. This is the right definition. Syria turned into a narco state of global significance. We're talking again about a multi-billion dollar drug trade, and the official regime takes the main decision regarding this trade where to locate the labs, how to transfer the drug from Syria to Jordan and to Lebanon. The core of this trade is under the supervision of the regime.

Amir Mizroch: 8:10

Wow, it's not as if the Middle East isn't screwed up enough. Now you have a narco state in Syria who's buying this stuff. It's affordable, easy to manufacture. How much does it cost, by the way? Do you have a sense of that?

Carmit Valensi: 8:18

Sure. So its street value varies widely, depending on, again, the supply factors and the components. So it ranges from $1, mostly in Syria and in Jordan to $25 per tablet. So in Saudi Arabia you will probably get a better quality but you will need to pay more. So it ranges between $1 to $25.

Amir Mizroch: 8:37

Where is it going? What are the?

Carmit Valensi: 8:39

trade routes here. Captagon's primary destination market has been the Arab Gulf, with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia being the biggest hub of demand. Jordan has been used as a major transit route to reach Saudi Arabia market. Today, the primary impact of this issue is felt by Jordan, largely to its strategic location. We're talking about 370 kilometer long border with Syria, and that serves as a key spuggling route. The Jordanian authorities are obviously concerned about the rise of domestic consumption as well of Skeptagon. They estimate that as much as one-fifth of the drug entering Jordan is consumed within the country.

Amir Mizroch: 9:18

Just to recap before we move on. It is an amphetamine that is being created in Syria by the Assad regime. It's a growth driver, as they say in tech. It's then distributed through Jordan to well. In Jordan there are consumers and Saudi Arabia. What's going on there?

Carmit Valensi: 9:37

So we don't have a lot of information, especially we don't have data about the consumption numbers in Saudi Arabia, but we know that it's huge. The usage there it's very extensive. They're trying to conceal it in fruit, in refrigerators, whatever you can think of Very creative ways to try to deliver the drug into the kingdom.

Amir Mizroch: 9:57

Right ways to try to deliver the drug into the kingdom. Right If we zoom out of the region, look more internationally. This is also a problem the US has identified. I think there's also been a Captagon Act passed by the US Congress. So if we look more broadly, look at the US, look at Europe, the rest of the world give us a sense of the state of play there.

Carmit Valensi: 10:15

It doesn't end in the Middle East. We clearly identify the spillover effect to Europe. You know, in the past few years ports and islands in Greece, for instance, romania and Italy have seized Captagon shipment dispatched from Lebanese or Syrian ports. We don't have significant evidence for major Captagon consumption in Europe so far, but there is a rising risk of Captagon tablets entering local markets there. And you know, the more these networks collaborate with European criminal group, the higher the chance of Captagon gaining traction in local markets in Europe and even beyond Europe. Last year the EU imposed sanctions on prominent drug dealers based in Syria and Lebanon. Us Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently announced the launch of a global coalition to address synthetic drug threats, which obviously includes Keptagon as well.

Amir Mizroch: 11:06

Right, so there is already a global war on drugs, right? What part of the global war on drugs is this taking, or is it just a minor part compared to cocaine and all the other stuff?

Carmit Valensi: 11:19

Not a lot of people outside the Middle East know what Keptagon is. This is the time to be more alert about this threat and to acknowledge it and its negative potential to the region, because it's just a matter of time when elements in the Middle East trying to make it more profitable will open up to other external markets beyond the Middle East. But it's still very limited compared to cocaine.

Amir Mizroch: 11:41

The Assad regime, after butchering hundreds of thousands of Syrians, has now turned to creating, distributing this narcotic Captagon that is fueling weapons transfers to terrorist organizations. This is making its way into the Palestinian territories. It's in Jordan. What overall effect do you think Captagon, the Captagon trade, is having?

Carmit Valensi: 12:05

When we define, in our analysis of the INSS, we don't define Syria as a narco state, but rather as a narco-terrorism state, because the linkage between those two areas is very, very clear. It's not just a criminal issue, but it became a security issue. We have, in the past few years, evidence for using the drugs route to transfer weapons and ammunition anti-tank rockets, RPG rockets, grenade launchers and Iranian-made Fajr rockets Really mind-blowing, I mean the amount of the ammunition it allows. The bad guys, including Hezbollah, including other Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria, all those elements use not just the infrastructure and the routes in order to, you know, transfer weapons and to arm other groups in the region, but they also use the drug revenues to fund their further activity. So we're in a big problem.

Amir Mizroch: 12:57

Terror groups do what they do under the banner of Islam, but they're fueling this basically by being, you know, drug traffickers, right, and selling this on to the population in their own countries.

Carmit Valensi: 13:07

You know, ironically, it's banned in the Islam Using drug. It's haram. This is the word in Arabic haram. This is banned. This is something that they're not allowed to do. But you know, we know for sure, that you can find Keptagon today in Gaza Strip. Hamas were using Keptagon to dig the tunnels. How did they manage to dig such an extensive network of tunnels? I mean, even Israeli authorities are trying for years to build an underground metro and it's very problematic and takes a lot of time. So how did they manage One of the explanations that they were consuming Captagon to stay awake, to work very hard for a very long time?

Amir Mizroch: 13:43

The Israelis, the Americans, the Jordanians? How come they haven't bombed Captagon factories in Syria, for instance?

Carmit Valensi: 13:49

Jordan killed a very prominent they call him the Syrian Escobar a very prominent dealer in southern Syria in a town called Sueda. They attacked three or four times already from the beginning of the year, which is amazing. It's huge. But Jordan so far is the only country who used military effort to target Captagon-related personnel and infrastructure, and the US are not there. Also, they want to limit their involvement in Syria, in the Middle East in general.

Amir Mizroch: 14:17

Can you take us a little bit into Syria? This is like a narco state run by a dictator that has killed hundreds of thousands of people. State run by a dictator that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced millions and is fueling terrorism and drug use across the Middle East and potentially further out. Just how crazy are things in Syria right now.

Carmit Valensi: 14:37

Well, things are quite crazy. Apart from, you know the usual dire situation there they don't have enough food. Most of the population today are basically hungry In the winter. I keep hearing stories in the winter that they don't have ways to keep them warm, so they burn pistachio peels, because they have a lot of pistachio in Syria. They burn it in order to get some, you know, warm in their house, which is insane.

Carmit Valensi: 15:02

A lot of the Syrian youth there young students use this Captagon sometimes as an alternative to food, because they don't have enough money to buy food, because the prices are completely like crazy for buying basic commodities today in Syria, so they prefer to invest this one dollar. Sometimes you can get the Captagon pill in even less than this, when it's very bad quality for sure. So they prefer to consume the drug to avoid being hungry all day. This is a very depressing situation. Interestingly, when we were trying to understand how it's being produced in Syria, so the regime gave a direction to turn some of the factories that were used to produce like rubber and all you know innocent materials in Syria, they turned them into Captagon factories. This is a very disturbing development.

Amir Mizroch: 15:54

Wow, it seems to me like there's a black hole in Syria. Just this evil, dark terror, narco state spewing out. All this stuff and you know, obviously is funded and connected by and supports a lot of other terrorism. You said earlier that a lot of people outside of the Middle East don't know what Captagon is, and this is something that you think they need to change. So why should a global audience care about this?

Carmit Valensi: 16:21

First of all, if we talk about the Middle East, as we said, it causes regional instability. It basically sponsored the bad guys and allowed them to use the revenues for terrorism activity. It also allows dictators to get away from punishment and sanctions by, you know, generating alternative streams of revenue, so you can do whatever you want. You can butcher your people, you can use chemical weapons against your own people and to get away with international sanction, which is the main way to punish Bashar, and he managed to get away by generating again this alternative stream of revenue. This is from a regional perspective. Globally, we were talking about a spillover of this drug, of Captagon, into Europe. We have several cases of which the Captagon was found in European capitals, and this is just the beginning. I'm sure that we're expected to see larger quantities of Captagon delivered to those regions because of the regime and other elements in the Middle East that are trying to find new markets.

Amir Mizroch: 17:18

Given the Middle East is already engulfed in violence and instability and now we have this narco-terrorism, drug trade, Syria and Lebanon, both countries that are extremely important to Israel. They're on our northern border. They're both failed states.

Carmit Valensi: 17:34

So this is quite an accurate definition failed state. Both Syria and Lebanon are basically under the definition of a failed state, with a severe economic crisis. Both in Lebanon and Syria we're talking about, approximately 90% of the population live below the poverty line. There is not enough electricity in both countries, so lack of commodities like wheat and fuel, not enough bread. Very difficult situation in both countries. Political vacuum in Lebanon, no president for many years now. And in Syria, Bashar al-Assad managed to survive the conflict, but in fact he hardly, you know, controls only two-thirds of the territory about 65%, 60-65% of the territory, whereas the other parts of the country are basically divided and are being controlled under other factions the Kurds, for instance, in the east, rebels in the north, Turkey, which captured some territory in the north. Very complicated situation, both politically and in terms of the socioeconomic conditions. So, yes, I would definitely define them as failed states.

Amir Mizroch: 18:43

Is there anything that I've missed? Is there an aspect that we haven't spoken about?

Carmit Valensi: 18:47

I think we covered most of the most important issues.

Amir Mizroch: 18:51

It hasn't been an easy conversation, actually very depressing.

Carmit Valensi: 18:55

I think, in a way, that the US and some European countries are starting to acknowledge it, but it's not enough. I think that they should really put it on the top of the agenda and to provide diplomatic and intelligence to assist their partner in the Middle East in combating this drug trafficking, to cope with this phenomenon Kami.

Amir Mizroch: 19:12

thank you for coming on to the Deja Organizer.

Carmit Valensi: 19:14

Thank you for the opportunity and thank you for having me.