Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator
The world's largest producer of the illicit drug Captagon was put out of business on December 8, 2024, when Maher al-Assad flew out of Syria to exile in Russia. Maher and his brother, President Bashar al-Assad, and all the extended Assad family clan, fled the country at the same time to Russia and various places. This is the first part of a two-part investigation into the Assad family drug business, and the international connections to the Sicilian Mafia.
On December 8, 2024, local residents in Latakia broke into Mounzer Assad's car showroom and attached a private home near the Harroun Hotel in Latakia, Syria. Mounzer is the son of Jameel Assad, deceased, who was the brother of Hafez Assad, the former president, and father of Bashar, who fled to Russia. A large quantity of Captagon was found in Mounzer's home. In a BBC interview after the Assads fled, Hafez Assad, the son of Mounzer, denied the pills found were Captagon, instead claiming they were chlorine pills used for treating swimming pools.
Local residents broke into the mansion of Maher in the western suburbs of Damascus on December 9. They found it was a Captagon warehouse and manufacturing facility, where they saw tens of barrels of chemicals that are used for the production of Captagon, along with all the production equipment. One of the biggest Captagon factories was exposed in the suburbs of Damascus. The Assad family hid the Captagon pills inside expertly crafted artificial fruit and vegetables. When packing the shipment, the Captagon was stuffed into the fake produce and placed on the bottom of the box, with actual fresh produce for export packed in layers on top.
Because Syria has a long history of fresh fruit and vegetable production and export, this cleverly disguised method of shipment was very successful and brought huge amounts of hard currency into the pockets of the Assad family, and kept the President and his wife, brother, and extended clan in power. In January 2025, the new Syrian authorities raided a warehouse located at the port of Latakia which had belonged to the Fourth Division and contained more than 100 million pills of Captagon.
The drugs were ready for shipment to Arab and Western countries and were hidden in backpacks, children's toys, electric wires, and food serving trays. On January 27, 2025, the new Syrian administration customs agents found a shipment of more than 7 million Captagon pills hidden in chocolate bars and other food products. The shipment was captured in trucks on the Syrian-Jordanian border.
While Bashar was the face of the executive branch, Maher controlled the military and security branches. Maher was the commander of the Fourth Division, which was an elite unit of tanks and soldiers. Maher's corrupt income on the side was made from the manufacture and distribution of Captagon. Maher funded the Fourth Division through corrupt practices such as taking kickbacks from all lamb meat sold and all eggs. Once the Assad regime fell, the price of eggs and lamb meat fell by half. Maher had been making billions of dollars while making the Syrian people starve from high prices.
Maherà ? ï ? ? ï ? ? ï ? ? ‚ ï ? ?ï ? ? „ s business was used to fund his brotherà ? ï ? ? ï ? ? ï ? ? ‚ ï ? ?ï ? ? „ s hold on power. Had the two brothers managed their vast income differently, they might still be in power, and making money. Instead, Maher and Bashar deprived the soldiers in the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), which depleted morale. Soldiers were paid about $30.00 per month. Many commanders made extra money by accepting bribes from soldiers who wanted to go home for a visit. Some commanding officers had an illicit income from taking large bribes from soldiers who did not report for duty, to stay with their family and work to provide an income. Western media has incorrectly described the SAA as à ? ï ? ? ï ? ? ï ? ? ‚ ï ? ?ï ? ?...“troops loyal to Assad".
This is as wrong as calling the US military "troops loyal to Trump". The former SAA was a conscription national army, drafted from every male Syrian who was over 18 years of age and not enrolled in a University. The SAA was comprised of soldiers who were mainly Sunni, and the remainder were Christian, Alowi, Druze, or Shiite.
However, most commanding officers were Alowi, the same religious sect of the Assad family. It had been portrayed in Western media that the Alowi community, which is about 8% of the Syrian population and is predominantly found on the coast, was uniformly loyal to the Assad family. A trip to Qardaha, the Assad family's ancestral home, presents a typical under-developed rural village, inhabited by poor farmers, but interspersed with several luxurious mansions built by Assad family members and those connected to them.
The vast majority of the Alowi citizens did not see a personal benefit from the Assad clan, other than a distinct advantage in obtaining a civil servant job, which was paying about $35.00 per month before the fall of Assad. When Assad fled, the locals of Qardaha like the rest of Syria, entered the newly abandoned mansions and took what they wanted. Had the Assad family taken care of their sect, they could have potentially benefited from loyalty, but the Assad clan, from top to bottom refused to share. Even the First Lady, British-born Asma Akras, wanted it all.
She devised a scheme to make money off every loaf of bread sold. She founded an NGO, Syria Trust for Development, which carried out many charitable works; however, she used it as a front for her benefit, defrauding even the UN of $30 million. Asma was the sole importer of every can of infant formula into Syria, as well as every bag of cement, and all the profits went directly into her account.
She had her brother Firas Akras siphoning money off the à ? ï ? ? ï ? ? ï ? ? ‚ ï ? ?Ëœsmart cardsà ? ï ? ? ï ? ? ï ? ? ‚ ï ? ?ï ? ? „ , which was a system of distribution to the Syrian population of heating oil (50 liters for the entire winter), gasoline (25 liters every seven days), cooking gas (1 can about every 90 days), and bread every two days. After the fall of Assad, gasoline, heating oil, and cooking gas are now readily available and cheaper than the black market of the Assad days.
The Assad regime could have remained in power had Bashar played the role of the 'benevolent dictator' and shared a small portion of his corrupt drug trade with the SAA and the Syrian citizens, who were living below the poverty line. Despite Syria's socialist government, there has never been a social welfare program for the poor.
However, there were a few basic commodities that were subsidized, and education and health care were free. But, there was never an American-style program of welfare cash payments for needy people. Foreign powers involved with the Syrian civil war were able to use the weak and demoralized condition of the SAA to coordinate planned mass desertions in Aleppo, Hama, Homs, and Damascus in the days leading up to December 8.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
Post Article Comment and Rate This Article
