Wie Syrien zum Narcostaat wurde

In diesem Beitrag wird nachgezeichnet, wie Syrien zu einem der größten Narco-Staaten wurde, dessen größte Einnahmequelle nun Produktion und Export von Drogen ausmacht und welche Rolle Captagon im Nahen Osten spielt: 

Captagon is now by far Syria's biggest export, dwarfing all its legal exports put together, according to estimates drawn from official data by AFP.

An amphetamine derived from a once-legal treatment for narcolepsy and attention disorder, it has become a huge drug in the Gulf, with Saudi Arabia by far the biggest market.

AFP interviewed smugglers, a fixer who puts together multi-million dollar deals, and 30 serving and former law enforcement officers from Syria and beyond, as well as diplomats and drug experts in a bid to grasp the scope of the phenomenon. (...)

Cheap, discreet and less taboo than alcohol, many poorer Saudis and migrant workers go to work on the drug.

"I can work for two or three days non-stop, which has doubled my earnings and is helping me pay off my debts," said Faisal, a skinny 20-year-old newlywed from a working-class background, who spends 150 riyals a week ($40) on the pills.

"I finish my first job exhausted in the early hours of the morning," but the drug helps him push through to drive for a ride-hailing service.

An Egyptian construction worker told AFP that he began taking the pills after his boss secretly slipped some into his coffee so he could work faster and longer. (...)

The economics of the trade are dizzying.

More than 400 million pills were seized in the Middle East and beyond in 2021, according to official figures, with seizures this year set to top that.

Customs and anti-narcotics officials told AFP that for every shipment they seize, another nine make it through.

That means even with a low average price of $5 per tablet, and only four out of five shipments getting through, captagon is at least a $10 billion industry.

With Syria the source of 80 percent of the world's supply, according to security services, the trade is at least worth three times its entire national budget.