Captagon

Challenges lie ahead for the new Syrian government as it seeks to close the gap in security policy

The arrest of a key player in the former regime's security and illicit apparatus represents a new level of capacity for Syria's new leaders

The drug trade is bankrolling the Damascus government through an illicit trade valued at around $57bn. Al Majalla explains why it started and how it's shaping Syrian society.

Its central location has made it a crucial hub. Today, Iraq not only trafficks drugs but produces them, and 60% of its citizens are now users. Unemployment and corruption have fuelled the problem.

Criminal enterprise in the country is not new, but the past decade's unstable landscape has created the perfect conditions for it to flourish. Al Majalla explains how Syria became a drug lord.

Drug production and abuse have wreaked havoc in all corners of the world. In the Middle East, Captagon has emerged as a lucrative business, threatening the social fabric of many parts of the region.

The Syrian Army's Fourth Division partners with an unlikely cast of characters to smuggle pills across borders while security men in Damascus raid currency exchanges. How did it come to this?

The Captagon trade has generated billions of dollars for the al-Assad regime, but Biden has hesitated to wield sanctions effectively. The Captagon 2 Act has more teeth, but will he use it?

Jordan's swift and tough military action has forced Damascus to address a problem it has long sought to ignore. Meanwhile, sources claim Iranian involvement in weapons smuggling.

That the Biden administration delivered a strategy for countering the Syrian narco-trade is a welcome development. But absent due pressure on Damascus, the strategy will unlikely have any real effect.