ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A drug smuggling network was dismantled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Raqqa, northeastern Syria, the SDF said on Wednesday, adding that two suspected dealers were arrested in the process.
Large supplies of illicit drugs were seized by the SDF as the Kurdish-led force raided a house during a security operation and subsequently infiltrated a criminal network who the force claimed was trying to “traffic [the drugs] in the city within fake markets it was trying to establish.”
During the investigations, one suspect admitted that the drugs were sent from areas controlled by the Syrian government in Aleppo city by an individual called “Abdo Abu Mohammed,” adding that the government must have a hand in the process as the amount was far too large to be smuggled by a lone person.
Raqqa was the former capital of the so-called Islamic Caliphate under Islamic State (ISIS) until it was liberated in 2017.
Another suspect admitted that the quantity of drugs was half a ton of hashish.
Earlier in February, the SDF arrested a financier in Raqqa alleged to have been supplying ISIS with funds.
A smuggler affiliated with ISIS was detained by the SDF in Raqqa last November.
Drug trafficking has become a major issue across Syria as the population struggles to deal with the collapsing economy and US sanctions. Hashish and captagon pills are the narcotics being trafficked the most across Syria, and into Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan, AP reports.
Syria has effectively been turned into a narco-state, concludes an investigation by the New York Times in 2021 revealing that more than 250 million captagon pills were seized around the world that year. Officials have scrutinized the Syrian government, claiming their major involvement in the drug trade.
“The idea of going to the Syrian government to ask about cooperation is just absurd,” said Joel Rayburn, the US special envoy for Syria during the Trump administration. “It is literally the Syrian government that is exporting the drugs. They are the drug cartel.”