Captagon: The Shadow War Reshaping the Middle East |
What once belonged primarily to organized crime has gradually entered the sphere of national security — and even hybrid warfare. It has become a new invisible weapon. To narcotics, it is what the new generation of cheap, effective lethal drones has become to modern warfare.
Syria Has Become the Global Center of Captagon Production
The Syrian civil war profoundly transformed the country’s economic structures. After more than a decade of destruction, sanctions, and institutional collapse, parallel economies replaced the functions of a ruined state.
Captagon emerged as one of the most profitable resources within this fragmented environment. Several Western and regional estimates have even suggested that nearly 80% of global production became concentrated in Syria.
This phenomenon is not merely the product of disorder. It reflects a logic of political and financial survival. When the legal economy disappears, narcotrafficking becomes:
a source of foreign currency,
a financing mechanism,
a tool of territorial influence,
and at times a means of maintaining loyalty among local armed networks and terrorist groups.
For years, international investigations accused structures linked to the former Syrian regime — particularly circles close to Maher al-Assad — of protecting or facilitating certain trafficking channels. Other analyses highlighted the role of pro-Iranian militias and armed groups operating in southern Syria.
Captagon is therefore no longer simply an illegal commodity. It has become a component of a parallel politico-military system.
Southern Syria: An Explosive Gray Zone
The provinces of Daraa and especially Sweida have gradually become major hubs for regional trafficking.
This region contains vast desert areas that are difficult to........