The Captagon factor: Assessing the future of GCC-Syria ties

Captagon, the addictive amphetamine-style drug that has taken the Middle East by storm, has made countless headlines in recent years. Mostly produced in Syria and exported to the countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), mass seizures of pills at seaports, airports, and land borders have become all too common. 

From youngsters partying for days on end to drained construction workers and cab drivers looking to work as many hours as possible, the drug is popular among many groups in the Gulf looking to stave off sleep.

The history of this lab-made drug takes us back to the 1960s, when the German company Degussa Pharma Gruppe produced a psychoactive medicine to be prescribed to patients suffering from narcolepsy and attention deficit disorders. It was also used as a stimulant to the central nervous system.

However, beginning in the 1980s, captagon production halted in most countries because of the dangers of fenethylline, one of the components of captagon.

"In parts of Syria under the government's control, there has been explosive growth of captagon manufacturing and trafficking in recent years"

In the 1990s and early 2000s, criminal organisations from Turkey and Balkan countries smuggled remaining stocks and new counterfeit tablets from Eastern Europe to the Arabian Peninsula.

After the eruption of the Syrian crisis in 2011 and the Islamic State’s (IS) meteoric rise in 2014, Syria became a major captagon producer.

Various factions in the Syrian conflict, including those fighting for and against Bashar al-Assad’s government, relied on captagon to give their fighters extreme amounts of energy and a sense of fearlessness. Within this context, captagon has become known as the “jihad drug”.

When Syrian regime forces regained control of most of Syria, the Damascus government began valuing captagon as a lucrative drug to export abroad, particularly to circumvent crippling Western sanctions that have cut off the country from legitimate trade.

Islamist groups in the opposition such as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham have also been involved in captagon production. As Dr Courtney Freer, a fellow at Emory University, said in an interview with The New Arab (TNA), captagon has been at the heart of a “narco-terrorist nexus” in the Levant.

Today, most of the world’s captagon production takes place in Syria and Lebanon. In parts of Syria under the government’s control, there has been explosive growth of captagon manufacturing and trafficking in recent years.

“With special machinery and dozens of laboratories, the regime has transformed war-torn Syria into one of the world’s leading narcotics enterprises,” wrote investigative journalist and Syria expert Taim Alhajj in a piece published by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

A social and security crisis in the Gulf

GCC countries are the most popular destinations for Syrian captagon, with Saudi Arabia topping the list. Today, many young people in Saudi Arabia and other GCC states struggle with this extremely addictive substance, which has created a multi-billion-dollar industry that presents a real social threat to Gulf societies.

“The GCC states, particularly the smaller ones, tend to regard threats to social stability as security threats; they do not see them as separate,” Patrick Theros, the former US ambassador to Qatar, explained to TNA.

Although drug use was a major issue in GCC states long before captagon became so popular, the extent to which captagon is being consumed in the Gulf suggests that GCC nations face a somewhat unprecedented crisis.

“Captagon is not the only or the first drug that’s been smuggled into the Gulf states, but the levels at which captagon seems to be making its way into the Gulf seem much larger in scale,” Dr Freer told TNA.

“It’s a cheaper drug than some of the others and so in a sense it’s easier for people to get their hands on it. One issue on the social side is figuring out why there’s so much demand for this drug and how to combat that,” she added.

"With US and European sanctions strangling the Syrian economy, Assad's government is unlikely to walk away from this multi-billion-dollar industry, which is too valuable under current circumstances"

Regional rapprochements and engagement with Damascus

The illicit captagon trade has been a motivating factor for states in the Gulf and the greater Middle East to renormalise diplomatic relations with Damascus. Policymakers in a host of Arab countries maintain that addressing the threat of captagon requires some degree of engagement and cooperation with the Assad regime.

Although the captagon crisis was not the only reason why Saudi Arabia reconciled with Syria earlier this year, it was a top priority in the rapprochement between the two states.

“Captagon was one of several important issues that led to the restoration of diplomatic relations between Riyadh and Damascus,” Colin P. Clarke, the director of policy and research at the Soufan Group, told TNA.

“Saudi Arabia wants to do everything in its power to clamp down on captagon trafficking before it destabilises Saudi society.”

Still, it may be too early to know whether Syria’s return to the Arab League and regional rapprochement will actually help to address the captagon crisis in GCC states, though there has been much media coverage about increased restrictions and seizures at borders.

“I think bringing Syria back to the Arab League will likely help with the captagon crisis to the extent that the Assad government is willing and able to stop or track production and export of captagon," said Dr Freer.

"I say willing because we’re not sure how much awareness the Assad regime has about how much is being produced and at what levels. I say able because we have these groups operating somewhat autonomously. So, it’s uncertain the extent to which Syrian government cooperation can be relied upon,” she continued.

“That said, it does seem that there are more seizures happening and the Jordanian military became involved. This is the type of problem that does require cross-border cooperation since it is fundamentally about smuggling goods across borders,” she explained.

The sheer size of captagon seizures in the Gulf speaks to the crisis’s magnitude. With US and European sanctions strangling the Syrian economy, Assad’s government is unlikely to walk away from this multi-billion-dollar industry, which is too valuable under current circumstances.

“Assad and his cronies are now too dependent on the revenue from drug trafficking to turn off the tap. The entire situation is likely to lead to a rise in organised crime, which will have significant second order effects on regional stability,” Clarke told TNA.

“It depends on the GCC priorities,” said Theros when asked whether he believes that Syria’s rehabilitation will do anything positive for Gulf states in terms of the captagon crisis.

“There is only so much you can get out of the Syrian regime. Damascus will bargain hard for every favour and concession requested. The GCC states will have to consider if the price for shutting down a few of Syria's large-scale exports may be too high considering other demands that they will make of Assad.”

Giorgio Cafiero is the CEO of Gulf State Analytics.

Follow him on Twitter: @GiorgioCafiero