If confirmed, the discovery would support claims by the United States and others that the Assad regime had been involved in actively exporting the drug.
Captagon has become a significant social problem in neighboring Arab nations and spurred some of them to engage in talks with the former Syrian regime to curb its trafficking.
It is believed to have become an economic lifeline for the Assad regime while it was under crippling American sanctions.
This week, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya reported the discovery of thousands of captagon pills at the Mazzeh airbase south of Damascus.
Last year, the US Treasury sanctioned a number of Syrians closely associated with the Assad regime for their alleged involvement captagon trade.
Persons:
Bashar al, Assad’s, Maher, Assad, Captagon, Al Arabiya, Bashar al Assad, Khalid Qaddour, Maher al, Mohammad al Jolani –, Biden, ”, –, captagon
Organizations:
CNN, Social, ”, Al, Air Force Intelligence, US Treasury, Treasury, Hezbollah, Carnegie Endowment, UN, Drugs, East Institute
Locations:
Syria, Damascus, United States, Saudi, Latakia, Jordanian, Iraqi, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, “, Gulf, Beirut, captagon