Syria
Syria’s anti-narcotics forces seize some 11 million Captagon pills flowing in from Lebanon on October 28, 2025. Photo: SANA
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Syria’s anti-narcotics forces seized some 11 million Captagon pills flowing in from neighboring Lebanon, Damascus state media reported Tuesday. The announcement comes a little over a week after Syrian and Iraqi authorities conducted a major joint operation seizing hundreds of kilograms of narcotics.
The Anti-Narcotics Directorate’s branch in Syria’s central-western Homs province “seized a vehicle coming from Lebanese territory, containing approximately 11 million Captagon pills in the southern Homs countryside,” according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).
The Directorate emphasized its “continued diligent efforts to pursue drug traffickers and promoters” and to “limit the criminal activities associated with the drug trade and its negative effects on the security and safety of society,” SANA reported.
For its part, the Syrian Interior Ministry, in a statement on its official Telegram channel, added that “the competent authorities are continuing the necessary investigations to uncover the identity of those involved and determine the criminal networks linked to the operation.”
Captagon, a powerful amphetamine, has long been a source of concern across the Middle East.
Syria, under the regime of toppled Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, was widely recognized as a primary source of Captagon production and distribution. The trade became a political and economic tool for the Assad regime, with many analysts pointing to Maher al-Assad, the president’s brother, as a key figure behind the industry.
Homs province shares a border with Lebanon’s northeastern Baalbeck-Hermal region and the Bekaa Valley. Numerous factories were established in those regions where rugged terrain, long-standing clan-based networks, and weak state control have turned the region into a smuggling hotbed.
The loosely demarcated and highly porous nature of the border, coupled with deep familial and economic ties between border communities, further enables the illicit drug trade.
Additionally, the presence of powerful non-state actors - most notably the Lebanese Hezbollah movement - complicates law enforcement efforts. With its own supply routes and logistical infrastructure, Hezbollah has long been accused of facilitating or turning a blind eye to drug smuggling, undermining the efforts of both Lebanese and Syrian state security forces.
The latest bust comes days after Iraqi and Syrian authorities successfully seized hundreds of kilograms of narcotics in a major security operation conducted inside Syrian territory last week.
In a statement, the Iraqi interior ministry on Wednesday noted that its affiliate, the Directorate-General for Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Affairs, “conducted a qualitative operation in direct coordination” with Syria’s Anti-Narcotics Administration. Through “joint fieldwork and intelligence coordination,” the two sides managed to seize “370 kilograms of narcotics.”
The operation also led to “the arrest of a number of internationally wanted suspects who are part of cross-border smuggling networks,” the ministry added.
Referring to the same operation, the Syrian interior ministry last week detailed that around 12 million Captagon pills were seized in the operation targeting a drug smuggling network in the Damascus countryside.
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