President of the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC), Salem Al-Meslet, has emphasized that the Assad regime has caused extensive destruction to Syria’s civilization, history, and natural resources over the past years. During Bashar’s reign, the country has gained notoriety for the trade in narcotics, particularly Captagon, which has now become the primary export of the Assad regime.
According to Al-Meslet, the narcotics in Syria are not produced secretly by small gangs outside the law, as is the case in some countries. Instead, Captagon production facilities in Syria are carried out with the knowledge and supervision of the Assad regime, which controls these facilities in coordination with the Fourth Division and its arm, the Hezbollah militia.
A recent report by the French newspaper, Le Monde, suggests that Bashar al-Assad has successfully circumvented Western sanctions by developing industrial production and intensive marketing of Captagon pills.
The production of Captagon does not cost the regime much, as the regime has been able to retrain pharmacologists in the manufacture of medicines based on amphetamines and establish a network of secret workshops in military areas under the protection of the Fourth Division, led by Major General Maher al-Assad, the younger brother of Bashar al-Assad.
The French newspaper reported that this drug generates annual revenues of billions of dollars, making it the primary source of foreign currency for the Assad regime. As a result, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on six
