Bashar Escobar. As the Assad family built a drug -imperial and thanks to it remains in power

A new front opened in the Civil War in Syria: the smugglers associated with the ruling regime entered into a direct armed confrontation with the army of neighboring Jordan. This can be Maher Assad, the younger brother of Bashar al -Assad, who leads the criminal community that produces and sells the forbidden drug Captagon. Syria provides 80% of all the drug produced in the world, exporting it in living sheep and tea leaves. This brings Assad’s three times more money than all Mexican drug carthes earn combined. Captagon income helps the Syrian leader buy the loyalty of officials and generals, as well as go to the purchase of weapons.

Content

• The king had three sons: a tragedy in Assad's house

• "Drug Jihad"

• The paths of the captagon are non -conjugated

• Drug producers against drugs

• Delivery with battle

The king had three sons: a tragedy in Assad's house

In the early morning of January 21, 1994, the young colonel of the Syrian army Bacil Assad sat in his sports Mercedes and went to Damascus International Airport. Bacil, the eldest son of the Syrian president Hafuz Assad and his official heir, about whom everyone in the country knew that it was he who would lead the state after his father - had to fly on a private plane in Germany, where he wanted to spend his vacation, skiing in the Alps.

He hesitated a little while he was collecting things, and although the plane would definitely not fly away without him, he was in a hurry to be in time for the appointed time of departure. The patrol policemen, who was well known to the Mercedes of the young officer, would not dare to stop the car of the future president, and therefore Basil drove along winter foggy roads at a speed much exceeded the permitted rules. In the passenger seat next to him was his cousin Haffez Makluf.

Makluf, climbing into the car, fastened his seat belt, Bacil - no. On the highway leading to the airport, the young Assad accelerated to 240 km/h and suddenly lost control of the car. Mercedes entered, and at full speed he drove into a concrete dividing barrier. Basil died on the spot, his passenger was in the hospital with severe injuries.

Together with Bacil, all the dynastic plans of the Assad family were buried, all the efforts of the propagandists who had accustomed the Syrians to the fact that the brave colonel with a dough beard would be their next lifelong president for years. Hafez Assad, who lost his beloved son and heir, should now choose a new successor.

His choice was small: the president’s post could take either his middle son Bashar, or the younger Maher. Of these two, it was Maher who looked more preferred by Hafuz heir. Like his father, and the dead older brother, he chose an army career, was well a military man and lived in Syria. And Bashar has been moving to London for many years, where he was engaged in private ophthalmic practice - as far from the men who are so beloved by men of his family.

Nevertheless, the father chose Bashar as the heir. He was returned from London, sent to study at the Military Academy in Homs, and propaganda began to sculpt the future hope of the nation from the middle son of the elderly president. In Syria, the conspiracy theory is still in use, according to which the whole story with the advent of Bashar to power is the work of the British intelligence services.

In Syria, the conspiracy theory is still in use, according to which the story with the advent of Bashar to power is the work of the British special services

Allegedly, the British accustomed this to the accident in which Basil died, and then with all their might rushed to discredit Maher only so that the well -known ophthalmologist was not even a warlike in appearance, which was well acquainted with London.

Be that as it may, in 2000, after the death of Hafuz Assad, his post was occupied by the middle son. But without the help of the youngest, it would be much more difficult for him to hold power in the country, which the civil war is torn apart and international sanctions are breathing. After all, it is Maher who not only commands the most combat -ready in the Syrian army by the fourth armored division, but also plays a leading role in criminal schemes that ensure the regime of his brother so necessary for him. As often happens in the Middle East, Maher Assad is both a general and a gangster. It is at the head of a criminal community that produces and sells a forbidden drug Captagon.

"Drug Jihad"

Kaptagon appeared in the 1960s as a completely legal cure for narcolepsy and attention deficiency syndrome. These are small tablets, the main active substance of which is a related amphetamine of a feenetillin. According to the doctor’s prescription, they could be bought without problems in European pharmacies, until in 1986 the World Health Organization has brought the drug to the list of prohibited.

The official sale and production of the drug was rolled up. However, by that time Kaptagon had already gained popularity in the Middle East and Africa, where young people used it for recreational purposes. Therefore, illegal manufacturers quickly established the scheme: the captagon underground was released in Bulgaria, and then through the Balkan countries they transported to the Middle East to the final consumer.

Pretty soon the drug was found another use. Captagon began to accept fighters of various irregular detachments, who appeared in the abundance of appeared in the region at the turn of the 1990s and 2000s. Cheap tablets (their retail price is an average of $ 3 apiece, although a high -quality cleaned drug for dealers in Saudi Arabia or in the United Arab Emirates can cost $ 25) for several hours relieve fatigue and fear, help to concentrate attention and disconnect emotions that interfere in battle. All this makes the captagon so attractive to the combatants that the drug even had the unofficial name “Jihad’s drug”.

Kaptagon is accepted by the militants of Hamas and ISIS, it can be found with the members of the Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda. In artisanal conditions, the drug and Syrian rebels are produced for their own needs. And Kaptagon is distributed to the fighters of the government Syrian Arab Army Bashar al -Assad. Moreover, it is produced not only in underground laboratories, but also on real pharmaceutical capacities, and even in quantities that are much superior to the needs of the army.

This surplus - and it is literally about hundreds of millions of pills - is exported, illegally delivered to consumers in the countries of the Persian Gulf and Africa, where Captagon is still very popular as a recreational drug. These supplies, according to the Government of Great Britain, bring Assad three more money than all Mexican drug carthes combined.

Captagon supplies bring Assad three more money than all Mexican drug carters earn combined

In London, the cost of the drug -imperia of the Syrian government is estimated at $ 57 billion and call it one of the most valuable assets of the Assad family and its immediate environment. There are no specific figures of the Syrian elite from the sale of tablets, but it is definitely about billions of dollars a year. An annually in the world a captagon is sold at least $ 10 billion.

80% of all the drug produced in the world is provided by Syria. Some part falls on the rebels there, but it is most likely extremely insignificant. So it is Damascus who receives the lion's share of all sales of the drug through smuggling channels.

Captagon income helps Assad to buy loyalty to officials and generals, and also go to the purchase of weapons. The dependence of the regime on the income brought by the shadow captagon empire is so great that the former US special representative in Damascus Joel Rayburn called Syria “drug -power” and expressed confidence that without money from the sale of captagon, Bashar Assad could not hold power for so long.

For a long time, the main path of smuggled supplies ran through the neighboring Lebanon neighboring with Syria. This was facilitated by an endless political crisis in Lebanon, which is skillfully uses in its interests the Union Assada grouping Hzbollah. In Lebanon, she is a legal political organization represented in parliament and in the government. Thanks to this, Hezbollah had no problems with the organization of smuggled supplies of the captagon from the Lebanese ports.

It is possible that Hezbollah herself produced a drug in Lebanon for further transferring to the Gulf countries. These smuggling deliveries have become one of the main reasons for the complete ban on the import of Lebanese goods into Saudi Arabia in 2021 and forced the Livan authorities to stop drug trafficking due to fears that other countries could join Saudi Arabia.

The paths of the captagon are non -conjugated

However, the search for smuggling is a very difficult matter, especially since the Syrians were extremely inventive in the transfer of captagon. The drug is hidden in canned vegetables, tea leaves, and even in the insides of living sheep. Thanks to all these tricks, the Syrian gangsters manage to hide most of their goods from the drug trafficking fighters with drug trafficking.

According to France Press, in 2022, nine tenths of all tables exported from Syria reached the end consumer. This is despite the fact that the number of intercepted pills does not even go into millions, but for tens of millions. For example, only one in the spring of 2020 in Italy the Party of the drug, a drug, numbered 84 million tablets from Syria. It is assumed that this party was not intended for sale in Europe, but was supposed to be transferred to Africa.

In 2022, nine tenths of all tablets exported from Syria reached the end consumer

According to some estimates, this business gives Syria more money than all legal exports. And the regime is constantly working on an increase in its profits.

The main tool for this is the expansion of the sales market. For this, representatives of the criminal world associated with Damascus or Hezbollah build a captagon network in countries where the drug has not been popular before. First of all, we are talking about Jordan. This country borders with Syria on the north and Saudi Arabia from the south and east, which already makes it extremely attractive to smugglers as a transit territory. But, besides this, the own consumption of the captagon is growing there. According to official figures , the number of crimes related to drugs increased in Jordan from 2 thousand in 2005 to more than 20 thousand in 2020. And most of these crimes are associated with the captagon.

The US administration is considered one of the main tools for financing the war and even publish detailed instructions to counteract this illegal business. The Arab countries, most of which broke off relations with Damascus after the outbreak of war in 2011, returned to the dialogue with the Syrian government in exchange for the promise of Bashar al -Assad to put an end to the captagon smuggling.

In May 2023, the countries of the League of the Arab states agreed to be suspended twelve years before Syria's membership only in order to stop contacts with the Assad regime in September. The reason for the new cooling of the relationship was the unfulfilled promise of Damascus to put an end to the export of the captagon.

Drug producers against drugs

Assad and his entourage in every possible way deny their participation in illegal trade for banned drugs, and the media controlled by the media regime constantly reports about the new victories of the security forces over drug dealers. But outside Syria, these statements are in no hurry to believe. The US Treasury regularly updates the sanctions lists of persons associated with the smuggling of the prohibited drug. And in these lists there are people who are not just entering the highest echelons of the Syrian authorities, but literally representatives of these echelons, including members of the Assad family.

Assad and his environment in every possible way deny their participation in illegal trade for prohibited drugs

In the description of the offenses in which these people are suspected, their participation in the shadow business schemes of Maher Assad, the failed president, doomed to spend all his life in the shadow of a more successful brother, often appears. Maher himself under sanctions since April 2011, from the very first weeks of the war. Then he commanded the Republican Guard. In fact, this is the personal protection of the president, only with armored vehicles, artillery and tens of thousands of soldiers and officers.

It was the Republican Guard that was marked by cruel reprisals against the opposition, and Maher Assad as a commander bears a direct responsibility for these reprisals. His units guarded Damascus in the hottest days of the war, when the rebels occupied the near suburbs of the Syrian capital. And after the government forces pushed the enemy, Maher received a new appointment. Since the spring of 2018, he commands the fourth armored division.

This is an elite unit of the Syrian army, equipped with the most prepared officers, with the most modern weapons available to the regime. And this is a criminal group engaged in looting, robberies and smuggling. Smuggling captagon.

“The fourth armored division receives income, including from trading in the captagon. Captagon trade has turned into a business model managed by the regime. It enriches the narrow circle of people belonging to this regime, and is critical for its existence, ”the European Union says , which regulates the sanctions against about four hundred friendly Assad of Person and organizations. A separate paragraph in this document indicates the fourth division itself.

It seems that the story of the inheritance of the first post in the country did not quarrel the brothers, Maher does not keep evil on the Bashar’s presidency of Bashar, who jumped up for the presidency and helps him in every possible way. The division controlled by Maher in a close conjunction with Hezbollah control most of the entire Syrian production of captagon and its smuggling.

The BBC investigation published last year says that both ordinary and officers from the division headed by the Maher of the division are involved in the capture of the captagon. And if the former act for the most part in the role of street dealers selling pills in retail, the latter are responsible for much larger operations.

The colleagues of the President’s brother are not subject to checks on numerous checkpoints, which from the beginning of the war are literally poking the roads in Syria. This allows them, without attracting excess attention, to transport weapons, parties of tablets and smugglers in their cars, who should transport the captagon abroad. First of all in Jordan.

Delivery with battle

Last years, the Jordanian authorities were negotiating with Syrian colleagues against mutual counteraction to drug trafficking. It is unlikely that the Jordanians did not know that this business was controlled by those who were sitting opposite them at the negotiating table and diligently pretended that they were passionately dreaming of putting an end to the illegal supplies of the captagon. Most likely, they knew, but still tried to agree. And when it did not work out, they sent additional army units to protect all 375 km of border with Syria.

This significantly complicated the task of smugglers and forced them to go to new tactics. If earlier they tried to overcome the border quietly and imperceptibly and at the first serious danger retreated back to Syrian territory, now smugglers are ready to break into Jordan with a battle. The first such battle occurred on December 12 last year.

If earlier the smugglers tried to overcome the border quietly and imperceptibly, now they are ready to break through with the battle

According to its results, one Jordanian border guard died, another was injured. Less than a week later, December 18, Syrian smugglers made a new attempt with weapons in their hands to enter the territory of a neighboring power. Only the fourteen -hour fierce resistance of the Jordanian troops forced them to retreat. After the battle ended, the Jordanians found weapons abandoned by criminals, among which there were sniper rifles and grenade launchers . Journalists reported that the Syrians were under the influence of their own goods, due to which they were able to resist the fighters of the professional army for so long.

These events almost leave no doubt that it was Jordan who stood behind the attacks of aviation on the territory of Syria in the second half of January. In the course of these attacks, the intervaling aircraft struck several objects in the province of Eswood near the border with Jordan. Local residents reported that ten people, including children, died as a result of the attack. Nothing is known about the involvement of any of those who died in smuggling schemes.

But it is known about the intention of the Jordanian authorities and continue to strengthen the protection of the border with Syria. This was stated by the head of state, King Abdalla Second during the recent inspection of the border military units. К слову, атака неизвестных самолетов на Эс-Сувейду произошла через несколько часов после того, как Абдалла попрощался с пограничниками.

Вероятно, семейству Асадов в будущем станет еще сложнее доставлять каптагон покупателям. Но это не значит, что они откажутся от нелегального промысла. Ведь вряд ли они возьмут и просто так откажутся от миллиардов, которые до сих пор помогают этой семейке находиться во главе государства.

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