The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) issued a report today, Monday, 22 December, on Captagon production in Syria one year after the fall of the Assad regime, noting that large scale manufacturing of Captagon has been disrupted.
The report added that the Syrian government has dismantled 15 industrial laboratories and 13 smaller facilities used to store Captagon since December 2024.
It noted that before December 2024, daily Captagon production in Syria reached millions of pills, explaining that these stockpiles are sufficient to secure supplies for several years and to fuel ongoing smuggling operations across the region if they are not seized.
The UNODC said it was unable to confirm the common assumption that some of Syria’s previous illicit production has moved to other continents, such as Africa.
Gulf countries remain the main market for Captagon, although there are indications of shortages in several target markets due to intensified seizures over the past year, according to the UNODC.
The office said it verified data indicating that at least 177 million Captagon pills, equivalent to 30 tons, have been seized across the Arab region since December 2024.
It added that smugglers continue to explore new routes and also use a range of transit and repackaging hubs, including through Western and Central Europe and North Africa.
Regional cooperation
The UNODC praised what it described as renewed efforts to strengthen regional cooperation to combat Captagon production and trafficking, including through intelligence sharing and coordinated responses.
It noted that this cooperation resulted in a “significant increase” in seizures in 2025, with many of the year’s largest seizures achieved through joint efforts.
Bo Mathiasen, the UNODC’s Director for Operations, said that although the drug market has expanded in recent years and contributed to dividing the region, the current need to act is bringing countries together.
He added, “Countries are cooperating, exchanging intelligence, and conducting joint operations, which has led to record numbers of seizures in 2025.”
Mathiasen concluded, “This shows that political will and international cooperation can disrupt even the most complex illicit criminal economies.”
The UN warned that continued disruption of manufacturing and trafficking could push traffickers and drug users toward methamphetamine and other synthetic drugs, accelerating their spread across the region.
It called for a comprehensive approach that includes drug prevention systems, treatment, and recovery based on scientific evidence, to strengthen these efforts in the region in parallel with continued enforcement and interdiction.
Arrest of “major figures” involved in drug trade
Syrian Interior Minister Anas Khattab revealed the arrest of three of the biggest “major figures” involved in the Captagon trade, noting that details of their activities will be presented in the media in the coming days.
He said these arrests come as part of intensified efforts by the ministry to stop the major networks involved in manufacturing and distributing narcotics.
In an interview with Al Jazeera on 6 December, Khattab said the most prominent achievement in Syria today is halting drug production in areas that saw widespread activity in recent years, despite the continued presence of quantities of narcotics hidden inside export bound goods, all produced during earlier periods.
He explained that investigations have focused on inspecting these modified export goods, and that large quantities of Captagon pills were found inside many shipments and fully seized. He added that most of the millions of pills confiscated fell within this category of cargo.
Khattab said joint work has been activated across ports, airports, and border crossings to ensure thorough inspections of goods before export, adding that the pace of work is rising noticeably.
Discussing the anti drug track, he said efforts date back to 2017, when a dedicated counter narcotics file was established, followed by long term work that included joint operations with the Turkish side.
He added that upon reaching Damascus, the Counter Narcotics Department was reactivated. It had existed within the Interior Ministry structure but had little real authority due to the involvement of influential figures in the former regime, foremost among them the Fourth Division, in sponsoring smuggling and manufacturing operations.
The minister said the ministry began reactivating the department in the first days after “liberation,” staffing it with new personnel and organizing two training courses to recruit new members, given the scale of drug manufacturing and trade activity in many Syrian provinces.
Efforts focused on Rural Damascus (the countryside surrounding Damascus in southern Syria) and Homs (central Syria), near the Lebanese border, where many operating factories were found.
According to Khattab, more than 14 drug production facilities have been seized, while the number of Captagon pills confiscated so far has reached around 365 million pills, “huge” quantities that caused significant harm to neighboring countries, foremost Saudi Arabia, which was a primary target for networks involved in production and smuggling.
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