New details of the notorious Capitagon drug trade have been revealed by the fall of Syria’s Assad regime

in Damascus – In a far corner outside Damascus, Syria, an abandoned potato factory now reveals one of the country’s many dark but transparent secrets. the ousted regime of Bashar al-Assad.

A CBS news team was able to access the site, and found a warehouse filled with industrial-scale hydrochloric acid and acetic acid, which are precursor chemicals needed to make it. The Capitagonone of the most popular street drugs in the Middle East and beyond.

Ahmed Abu Yakin is in Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al-Shamor HTS, one of the the major parties that rule the country after Assad fled December 8. Yakin says that this major cover-up in Captagon was discovered a few days after the group took over. Tablets are stuffed into large stacks of volt control kits ready for shipment.

Often referred to as the “poor man’s cocaine,” Capitagon is a highly addictive amphetamine-type stimulant.

“We felt bad for the youth who were addicted to it,” said Yakin. “The Assad regime was destroying a generation and they didn’t care that much. They only cared about making money.”

And that money is amazing. Analysts estimate that the Assad regime makes $5 billion a year in trade, dwarfing Syria’s official budget and making it a vital lifeline in the cash-strapped country. The drug costs pennies to make but can sell for up to $20 for a single tablet. Assets found in abandoned factories can be worth tens of millions of dollars.

For years, neighboring countries have accused Assad’s Syria of being the world’s largest exporter of the illegal drug. In March 2023, the US Treasury Department fined several Syrians for alleged involvement in “dangerous amphetamines”, including two of Assad’s cousins.

“Syria has become the world leader in the production of the highly addictive Capitagon, most of which is trafficked to Lebanon,” said Andrea Gacki at the time, then director of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. “Together with us, we will hold accountable those who support Bashar al-Assad’s regime with drug revenue and other financial means that will enable this regime to continue oppressing the Syrian people.”

Now, his lucrative drug business appears to have been crushed, along with his brutal and corrupt empire. For Yakin, Captagon has no place in Syria’s future.

“We will destroy everything,” said Yakin. “We will eliminate anything related to drugs, and anything related to Assad’s criminal regime.”