UAE’s Alleged Involvement in the Captagon Exportation from Syria to the Gulf Unveiled
Documents Expose UAE’s Role in Captagon Smuggling from Syria to the Gulf After Assad’s Fall
Documents and communications discovered in a Captagon factory in Syria, following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, reveal the involvement of companies operating under the UAE’s protection in the exportation of Captagon from Syria to the Gulf.
The documents indicate that Captagon shipments were disguised as vegetable and fruit exports, organized through UAE-based companies in Dubai, including the “Areeha General Trading Company.”
The documents, obtained from a warehouse near a military facility along with boxes filled with Captagon pills, reveal that Maher al-Assad, the brother of the ousted Syrian president, personally managed this illicit trade.
In recent years, Saudi authorities have regularly announced their success in foiling attempts to smuggle millions of Captagon pills hidden inside fruit shipments arriving from Lebanon through the Al-Batha border crossing between Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Lebanese groups accuse Hezbollah of facilitating the smuggling of drugs from Syria into Lebanon, which are then sent via vegetables and fruits to Gulf countries, a practice that has led to periodic bans on such imports.
Following the turmoil in Syria in 2011 and the collapse of Lebanon’s political and economic systems, the Captagon trade has flourished in the region.
Captagon is considered a major source of income for the Syrian regime, generating billions of dollars. In 2020, Syria’s Captagon trade was valued at no less than $3.46 billion, while in 2021, the trade in the Middle East surpassed $5 billion, according to the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy in Washington.
The “Political and Economic Networks Observatory,” which monitors Captagon trade in the Arab world, estimated that the Assad regime earned an average of $2.4 billion annually from this trade between 2020 and 2022.
It is estimated that the profits from drugs smuggled via Lebanon were nearly double those derived from Syria’s own exports.
The “Captagon Law,” passed in 2023 in response to the growing production and use of Captagon, links the drug trade, which the U.S. labels as a “security threat,” to the Assad regime.
The U.S. Treasury Department placed six individuals, including two of Assad’s cousins, on its sanctions list for their involvement in Captagon production and export.
Syria, which the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has labeled a “global leader” in Captagon production, is responsible for 80 percent of the world’s supply of this drug.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported that Syria and Lebanon were the primary departure points for Captagon shipments.
These shipments reached Gulf countries either directly by land or sea or indirectly via other regions, with full cooperation from companies operating under the auspices of the UAE regime.
