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Damascus — In a remote corner on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, a now-abandoned potato chip factory reveals one of the many dark but open secrets of overthrown regime of Bashar al-Assad.
A CBS News crew accessed the site and found a warehouse lined with industrial-scale hydrochloric acid and acetic acid, which are precursor chemicals needed to make captagonone of the most popular street drugs in the Middle East and beyond.
Ahmed Abu Yakin is with Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al-Shamor HTS, one of the main responsible groups in the country after Assad fled December 8. Yakin says this massive underground cache of Captagon was found just days after the rebel group took over. The pills are wrapped in large stacks of home volt regulator kits ready to ship.
Often called the “poor man’s cocaine,” Captagon is a highly addictive amphetamine-type stimulant.
“We feel bad for the young people who were addicted to it,” Yakin said. “The Assad regime was destroying a generation and they couldn’t care less. They only cared about making money.”
And that money is impressive. Analysts estimate that the Assad regime raked in $5 billion a year from the trade, slashing Syria’s official budget and turning it into a lifeline for the bankrupt state. The drug costs just pennies to make, but can sell for up to $20 for a single tablet. Transport seen in the abandoned factory can be valued in the tens of millions of dollars.
For years, neighboring countries accused Assad’s Syria of being the world’s main supplier of the illegal drug. In March 2023, the US Treasury Department sanctioned several Syrians for their alleged involvement in “dangerous amphetamine”, including two of Assad’s cousins.
“Syria has become a world leader in the production of the highly addictive Captagon, much of which is trafficked through Lebanon.” he said Andrea Gacki at the time, who was then director of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. “Along with our allies, we will hold accountable those who support the Bashar al-Assad regime with illicit drug proceeds and other financial means that enable the regime’s continued repression against the Syrian people.”
Now, his highly lucrative drug business appears to have been crushed, along with his brutal and corrupt regime. For Yakin, Captagon has no place in Syria’s future.
“We will destroy everything,” Yakin said. “We will eliminate everything that has to do with drugs and everything that has to do with the criminal regime of Assad.”
