Captagon

Although the Jordan government has implicated Iran-backed militias, as well as Syrian military groups, in rising cross-border drug trafficking to Jordan, bilateral trade between Jordan and Syria has increased.

A recent 55-page report provides a comprehensive overview of the captagon drug trade in Syria, its evolution since the early 2000s, methods of production, implicated state and non-state actors, and market trends.

A recent report published by the United States Department of State on the net worth and known sources of income of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and his family members has garnered criticism for its scant evidence, lack of new information, and poor quality.

Last week, security forces of the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria seized nearly 2.5 million captagon pills in their largest drug bust to date. The bust came a few days after the security forces of the Syrian Salvation Government seized four million captagon pills in Idlib. Both shipments were smuggled from areas controlled by the Turkish-backed Syrian Interim Government.

Jordan has recently announced its war on drugs following rare, violent clashes with drug traffickers who attempted to smuggle captagon into the country from Syria. The announcement may strain trade prospects between the two countries, with new reports already citing long queues of Syrian trucks at the border likely due to stricter inspections. 

The National Defence Authorisation Act for Fiscal Year 2022, which was recently signed into law, includes several provisions on Syria, such as requiring the State Department to submit reports on the net worth of President Bashar Al-Assad. Though a draft measure to counter the Syrian government’s vast Captagon drug trade was excluded from the final version of the law, a new bill on this matter has recently been submitted to congress.