BEIRUT (AP) — A tiny white pill has given Syrian President Bashar al-Assad powerful leverage over his Arab neighbors, who were willing to pry him out of pariah status in hopes he could stem the drain of the highly addictive Captagon would stop amphetamines from Syria.
Western governments are frustrated by the way Arab countries treated Assad on the red carpet and fear their reconciliation could undermine efforts to end Syria’s long-running civil war.
For Arab countries, however, stopping Captagon trading is a top priority. Hundreds of millions of pills have been smuggled over the years to Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab countries where the drug is used recreationally and by people with physically demanding jobs to stay alert.
Saudi Arabia has intercepted large shipments of pills hidden in crates of fake plastic oranges and inside hollowed-out pomegranates – even pills crushed and shaped to look like traditional clay bowls.
Analysts say Assad is likely hoping to secure reconstruction funds, further integration in the region and even pressure for an end to Western sanctions by making even limited anti-drug gestures.
Most of the world’s Captagon is produced in Syria, with smaller quantities in neighboring Lebanon. Western governments estimate that the illegal trade in the pills brings in billions of dollars.
The United States, Britain and the European Union accuse Assad, his family and his allies, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, of facilitating and profiting from the trade. That gave Assad’s rule a tremendous financial lifeline at a time when the Syrian economy is collapsing, they say. The Syrian government and Hezbollah deny the allegations.
Syria’s neighbors were the largest and most lucrative market for the drug. As the industry has thrived, Captagon has been more than just a cash cow in recent years, according to experts in Damascus.
“The Assad regime realized that it could weaponize this for political ends… and that’s when large-scale production began,” said Karam Shaar, senior fellow at the New Lines Institute in Washington.
Ending the trade was one of the key demands made by the Arab countries in their talks with Syria to end its political isolation. Syria was reinstated last month from the Arab League, from which it was suspended in 2011 over Assad’s crackdown on protesters. On May 20, Assad received a warm welcome at the Arab League Summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
A possible sign of the behind-the-scenes compromises came on May 8, when airstrikes in southern Syria reduced the home of a well-known drug lord to rubble. Merhi al-Ramthan, his wife and six children were killed. Another attack destroyed a suspected Captagon factory outside the town of Daraa near the Jordanian border.
Jordan was likely behind the attack with Assad’s approval, activists and experts say. The attack came a day after the Arab League officially resumed Syria, a move mediated by Jordan.
“Assad assured that he would prevent the regime from supporting and protecting smuggling networks,” Saud Al-Sharafat, a former brigadier general in Jordanian intelligence, told The Associated Press. “For example, he facilitated the disposal of al-Ramthan.”
Jordan, he said, views the Captagon trade as “a threat to both security and community peace.”
In public comments, Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi refused to confirm or deny whether his country was behind the airstrikes, but said it was ready to take military action to stem drug smuggling.
Arab states, many of whom had backed the rebels trying to overthrow Assad, say they share the goal of urging him to make peace. Ahead of the Jeddah summit, Jordan hosted a meeting of senior diplomats from Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Egypt. The long agenda included defining a roadmap for peace talks and the return of millions of Syrian refugees.
However, the assembly made the greatest progress on Captagon. Syria pledged to curb smuggling and agreement was reached to form a regional security coordination committee. Days later, Syrian state media reported that police broke up a Captagon smuggling operation in the city of Aleppo and discovered 1 million pills hidden in a pickup truck.
Jordan has stepped up surveillance along the Syrian border and raided drug dealers in recent years. Jordanian troops killed 27 suspected smugglers in a fierce gun battle in January.
Smuggling routes have made it difficult to unravel drug networks. A member of an Iraqi militia told the AP that militias in Iraq’s desert province of Anbar, which borders Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, have been critical to Captagon smuggling. He spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Syrian lawmaker Abboud al-Shawakh disputed the government’s profits from drug trafficking and insisted the authorities would crack down on smuggling.
“Our country is being used as a regional transit route because there are border crossings outside of the state’s control,” al-Shawakh told the AP. He claimed that only armed opposition groups were involved in the Captagon deals.
Many observers assume that Syrian opposition groups are involved in drug smuggling. However, Western governments have accused Assad’s relatives and allies of a direct role in the production and trade of Captagon and have imposed sanctions on a number of people close to Assad.
While Assad may be willing to crack down on some parts of the drug trade, he has little incentive to crush it entirely without getting anything in return from Arab states, al-Sharafat said.
A Saudi official has denied reports that Riyadh offered Damascus billions of dollars in exchange for a crackdown. But he added that anything the Kingdom of Syria could offer would be less costly than the damage Captagon has inflicted on Saudi youth. He spoke on condition of anonymity, in accordance with regulations.
The US and other Western governments fear that the Arab states’ normalization with Syria will undermine attempts to pressure Assad into making concessions to end the conflict in Syria. They want Assad to follow a peace plan outlined in UN Security Council Resolution 2254, passed unanimously in 2015, which includes talks with the opposition, a constitutional rewrite and UN-supervised elections.
So far the solution has led to nothing. Since his departure, Assad has regained control of previously lost territory and confined the opposition to a small corner to the north-west. His power now appears firmly in his grip, although much of the north and east remain out of his hands and held by US-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters.
Shaar said Assad could use the Captagon card to try to freeze the UN resolution.
Other concessions, such as lifting sanctions imposed by the West, would be more difficult for him to obtain. While the Gulf Arab states will not be able to funnel money directly to Assad’s government given the sanctions in place, Shaar said they could funnel money through UN-led projects in government-controlled Syria to lure Assad into cracking down on Captagon.
“He will work politically with the Gulf States,” Shaar said.
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Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report.