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How drug exports to the Middle East fuel addiction there, and a mafia's gambit to make India a base of operations. O n May 10, a Libya-bound ship with 26 million pills of Tramadol, an opioid painkiller presented in doses of mg, way higher than standard prescriptions, and hidden among towels and tablecloths, was apprehended by the Greek authorities in the port of Piraeus. The Tramadol was made in Amritsar by Royal International, a pharmaceutical company licensed to export and manufacture drugs. Royal International, by all accounts, broke no law in manufacturing the drug in a dose that has little medicinal value. Royal is just one of many manufacturers that regularly export Tramadol to Libya—exports that meet all Indian regulatory requirements, which are silent and lax about some crucial things. The drug is legal, the export is legal, the importer is legal—on paper at least—and the shipping is legal. In Egypt, you can tip with it, and settle the cab fare. In Gaza, Tramadol addiction is the only possibility of escape from oppression. Indian exports and smuggled shipments—of Tramadol in particular—to the Middle East are responsible for mass drug abuse in the region, a Fountain Ink investigation has revealed. At this point, the Middle East has by far the highest number of displaced and traumatised people in the world. The rise of India as a major drug exporter to the Middle East coincides with a period where it has also emerged as a hub for the smuggling of precursor chemicals such as ephedrine used for making methamphetamine to Africa. Vicky Goswami, who used to push drugs to the high and mighty in Nineties Mumbai, is the lynchpin of the trade in precursors from India, according to various Indian, Kenyan, and American investigative agencies. He is described as an integral part of the Akhasa Organisation, a crime syndicate run out of Kenya by two brothers. Akhasa is involved in a major play to become the big supplier in America and Europe after the clampdown on Mexican cartels by US agencies. Goswami handles the procurement and shipment of chemicals, many of which are smuggled out of ports in Gujarat, Indian investigators said. India is now a major point of origin and transit, both on its northeastern borders and the west coast. Drugs like Tramadol go to the Middle East, ostensibly legally, but mostly they fall in the nowhere zone, that special place created by bureaucracy where everything is okay as long as forms are filed in triplicate. Almost every government official spoken to said the export of Tramadol , an unheard dosage, was not a problem as long as it was not sold in India, and the company could show a purchase order from the importing country. Libya, in this case, is war-torn, has two governments, and many armed groups vying for control. The smuggling of precursors is a straightforward crime, though the scale is not fully known. The only reasonable indication is a bust earlier this year of 20 tonnes of ephedrine from a pharma factory in Solapur that was declared closed by the owners earlier. They have the unenviable task of imagining an elephant from a glimpse of its tail. They discussed trafficking tonnes of precursor chemicals from India into Kenya with the ultimate goal of producing methamphetamine in super labs in east and west Africa for the United States, Europe and South Africa. In the background, members of the Kenyan government, police force and coast guard turned a blind eye to happenings in the port city of Mombasa. It has emerged as a major point along the Smack Track. The stakes were high. Millions in shipments, according to a source in the Kenyan Ministry of Interior, of heroin and amphetamines were on the table as the Akhasas decided to carry on the legacy of a man who was murdered in a gangland battle on Blood Street in Amsterdam. If the plan had run smoothly, Akhasa would have made millions of dollars that would line not just their pockets but also enrich politicians in Kenya and politically-connected people in India, sources in Kenya and the DEA told Fountain Ink. They were recording—with audio and video—many of the meetings, some accessed by Fountain Ink. One afternoon in November in Nyali, a luxurious beach suburb in Mombasa, Kenyan officers from the anti-narcotics unit and six officers from the US made their way to the high-walled Akhasa mansion. At about 4 p. The arrests made waves across Kenyan society which was slowly edging towards narco-state status, where drug barons had their henchmen in all parts of government. The four have been indicted by the US and are to be tried in a New York courtroom. Kulkarni captured the attention of Goswami then associated with the Dawood gang who would lavish her with gifts. She eventually forsook Bollywood and fronted his hotel business in Dubai after he was awarded a life sentence in a Dubai jail for manufacturing Mandrax. To general surprise he got a royal pardon 16 years later. After that, the couple moved to Kenya and settled in Nyali, Mombasa. Methamphetamine is a powerful stimulant that makes the heart work harder, the mind sharper, and ensures alertness even in small doses. India is the third largest manufacturer of pharmaceuticals, yet suffers from inefficiencies in regulating the industry. The NCB was in disarray during this period. For a long time there was no one responsible, said the DoJ official, and when someone expressed interest he was more of a paper appointment, leading a small narcotics team who could not monitor the massive quantities of chemicals produced across India. Akhasa put the plan into action, despite arrest and indictment, shipping precursors from India to Africa, until an unexpected development threw a monkey wrench into the works. Inspector Nagarkar arrested a Nigerian on the streets of Kalyan, a satellite town serving Mumbai, with bags of white powder on April It shows a man in a black and white jumper and jeans shovelling sand with a spade. His face is blurred. As the music reaches a crescendo, another man in a checked T-shirt walks over with a shovel to assist. The soldiers of al-Quds are digging in Rafah, southern Gaza. They yank out a blue plastic bag that has been buried, after being smuggled through the underground tunnels that run between Egypt and Gaza. The camera zooms in on the blue bag and further into the green and white boxes. They keep digging and pile box after box of India-manufactured Tramadol on a purple blanket. Al-Quds Brigade claims they seized , tablets of Tramadol mg in just one day. Tramadol is a painkiller administered to women in labour; it is also prescribed as a painkiller for cancer patients. Like opiates, such as codeine and morphine, it targets pain by binding to the same receptors in the brain. Though morphine is the strongest of the three, Tramadol beats other painkillers by twin tactics: it reduces pain by releasing chemicals such as serotonin, and works in a manner similar to most modern anti-depressants. In , when heads of the national drug law enforcement agencies met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to discuss the scale of the problem, Tramadol seizures were mostly in dosages of , , , , or mg. A large number of shipments originated in India. According to data provided by a number of Indian ports and airports, there were shipments of unauthorised Tramadol to West Africa in Royal International refused to respond to Fountain Ink despite multiple efforts. Several factors make the region prone to illicit trade: corruption, weaknesses in the social and criminal justice system and the perennial revolutions of Africa. The fall of Muammar Gaddafi was the signal for the self-destruction of the fragile Libyan state into mutually warring tribal and regional factions. That enabled an unholy cabal of politicians and thugs to plunder the country and exploit the lawlessness and thus fuel a Tramadol addiction that eventually crossed the borders to Egypt and into an even more dysfunctional Palestine. It was a busy evening as people shuttled in and out of Kalyan railway station. Nagarkar dragged the Nigerian who was twice his size to the corner. The streets of Kalyan had been terrorised by mephedrone a synthetic stimulant and Nagarkar knew the drug, but this looked different. It was whiter. The man played dumb until the inspector threatened to rough him up. Nagarkar had not heard of these chemicals before. Chinnasa confessed, hoping to get off lightly. Some dealers had set up small labs in their kitchens and were cooking methamphetamine. They always bulked up the quantity of cocaine, meow meow and MDMA by lacing mixes with baking soda, rat poison, laxatives, but tossing in methamphetamine and ephedrine created a new, more potent, cocktail of designer drugs. Nigerians were running this racket across Thane and Mumbai. Walzade had a large network of informants made up of former addicts and dealers. T here is a steady stream of Tramadol into Libya. Each box was valued at Rs The value per box declared was Rs 45, freight on board port. Millions of pills reach Libya each month, when its population is just 6. Jalal Othman, director of communications and media administration for the Government of National Accord in Tripoli, said Libya allows the import of 50 mg Tramadol but pills containing mg were not listed as permissible. Yet there are frequent reports of illegal trafficking into Libya. A popular route is transport through Dubai. He added that mg pills could not be procured yet pharmacists were getting them illegally. Prominent businessmen, expatriate community including diplomatic corps have shifted to neighbouring countries. Tripoli airport has been completely destroyed. The civil unrest, which is a significant deterrent to international trade and investments, also impacted on our own exports. The report also said the balance of trade with Libya had turned unfavourable. Due to the fighting, crude exports to India had fallen. O n the day of the sting, Inspector Walzade paced nervously. Though the details were meticulously planned, there was no guarantee the dealers would arrive with two kilos of ephedrine. Cold feet at the last minute, whispers in the underworld, or even a traffic jam could do it. Walzade, Nagarkar, four others from the narcotics team and the informant waited outside Hiranandani Meadows in Vartak Nagar, Thane. Amol knew the peddlers had arrived because the Swift Dzire, with its big boot, was the car of choice for drug dealers. When the two men stepped out, he was taken aback. They were technicians, who had faked their degrees and worked at Cipla. They moonlighted as prescription drug dealers peddling Viagra and ephedrine on the streets and to pharmacies. They were the living proof of what UNODC has been saying for years: there is a move from natural highs to synthetic highs, a fall in cocaine and heroin consumption has been accompanied by a surge in ATS Amphetamine-Type Stimulants consumption. The new drug dealer is the chemist, the pharmacist. When they saw a group of people huddled together, they knew it was a set-up. They handed over the bag with 2 kg of ephedrine. The narcotics wing travels with a testing kit. Amol dropped the mixture on to the kit and it changed colour. Though there is no kit for ephedrine or methamphetamine, the colour purple indicates a controlled substance and so the officers had a reason to arrest the mules. ACP Shelke arrived at the Wartagar police station next to Cadbury junction where the two men were being held. A soft-faced man with a round belly, he is the sort of policeman that can morph from good cop to bad cop in a flash. So common was Tramadol that it was shared on the streets by fighters who claimed it lessened the pain of being a militant. As early as February 22, , Gaddafi warned in his hysterical rambling speech:. They were given drugs, like in Tunisia, are just imitating. They should be given a lesson and stop taking drugs. Shame on you, you gangsters. And while he desperately clung on as fighting raged, he spoke about drugs once again. They give them pills at night. They put hallucinatory pills in their drinks, their milk, their Nescafe. You people… stop your children, take their weapons, bring them away from bin Laden, the pills will kill them. It had hit the market in a big way, and soon after the no-fly zone was established even more pills entered the market. The most popular was the mg variant. This one came from India as did a shipment in March India and Tramadol kept coming up again and again. On February 28, , the Tobruk Security Department seized 45 million Tramadol pills inside three containers from India aboard a trade ship. A source in the ministry of interior in Tobruk the East Government claims the drugs, hidden inside perfume containers, were worth 90 million Libyan dinars and that about million Tramadol pills were seized in , with the largest number from India. The vast majority of these shipments originated from India via commercial shipping containers. In Egypt and other countries in the Middle East and West Africa, Tramadol consumption is a primary drug threat and its widespread use is due to Tramadol being inexpensive, potent, and widely available. Hours into the interrogation, they were talking nervously, repeatedly about a pharmaceutical company called Avon Life Sciences in Solapur and a chemist called Dhaneshwar Swamy who had given them the chemicals. They reached in time to nab Swamy from the bus stop near the factory, identifying him by a large red backpack. They found 5. Swamy assumed the role of a reluctant tour guide and walked them over to Avon Life Sciences. The acre factory was a ghost—there were a few lights at the entrance but the vast complex was unlit, scattered boxes lay everywhere, and a foul stench came from the canteen. Trouble for Avon started when pharmaceutical giant Ranbaxy, who ran a dual operation at the plant, shut shop overnight after a pill they manufactured was banned by the US FDA. They left behind a huge centrifugal machine, a gigantic boiler, a fermentation unit and massive financial woes for Manoj Jain, owner of Arch Companies. Swamy stayed back and his bosses remained true to their word. The top management dictated a new direction from Mumbai and Avon Life Sciences became a smaller operation, a mom and pop shop of eight people called New Lab that operated from a corner of the factory. The space was kitted out with home-style ovens bought in the local market for baking ephedrine. Swamy would work on 25 kilos at a time. The first step was washing the chemicals, then bleaching them till they were whiter. He would then place the ephedrine in baking dishes and into the oven. Swamy was working his way through bags of ephedrine; each batch took about 45 days to process. The valuable product, L-ephedrine, would be kept aside while the waste, known as D-ephedrine, collected in a small mound in the corner. When a batch was processed, a car would ferry it to an undisclosed location but word was that it was being taken to Gujarat from where it would be shipped out of India. Nobody came knocking on the doors of Avon. As bulk quantities were routed elsewhere, Swamy started taking his own share. A mixture of ambition, greed and desperation, led him to leak the drug into the local market for a bit of money on the side. T he illicit trade in drugs has lined the pockets of jihadis. Unlike al-Qaeda which smuggled drugs to European markets, ISIS deals in Arab markets, transporting Tramadol from the lawlessness of Libya across the 1,km desert frontier it shares with Egypt. On one day in , Egyptian border guards confiscated four million Tramadol tablets. But the trip is no longer the same as states have imposed bans. Egypt put Tramadol under national control in as did Libya, pushing its price up from the Arab Spring days. The smuggling continues in spite of attempts to put a stop to it. The intention was to distribute them in Tripoli. On March 12 the authorities laid an ambush and confiscated 6, tablets. Every single one was of Indian origin, according to a source in the Ministry of Health in Tripoli. Walzade walked towards the shed at the edge of the compound. It was unlit and damp. He switched on the torch on his mobile and hit the jackpot: 20 tonnes of ephedrine sacks were piled on top of each other. This was the biggest drug bust in Indian history. The street value of the haul was Rs 2, crore. Along with the ephedrine the team also recovered 3 tonnes of acetic anhydride, the precursor to heroin. Swamy was firm; he was just the chemical man. All the big money decisions were being made by Rajendra Dimri, the production manager who dictated targets after consulting with the owner in Mumbai. When the FDA, NCB and Customs and Excise were roped in, they found no record of operations for almost two years, nor any mention of customers for the ephedrine or details of shipping. But they did find 7. It was he who made all the operational decisions and organised cars to ferry bulk quantities of ephedrine. As they were leaving, a watchman with a grudge walked on over: a big dispatch had left for Gujarat just a few days ago. A few days later another 1, kilos of ephedrine was seized from a factory in Kanbha, Gujarat. While cannabis retains its top position, cocaine and heroin are down globally on the list of most abused and trafficked drugs. At number two are prescription drugs, as demand for painkillers, sedatives, stimulants and tranquilisers rises rapidly. Users across the world lean towards self-medicating on opioids, depressants and stimulants according to the UNODC. Coinciding with this development is the emergence of India as one of the largest manufacturers of pharmaceutical products in the world. Annual production exceeds Rs 2 lakh crore, of which 55 per cent is exported to countries. It is not surprising therefore that India is emerging as a point of origin for drugs abused in the Middle East and Africa. But there are stringent laws in the Drugs and Cosmetics Act , which provides the framework for ensuring quality, and safety of medical products. The sector thrives by capitalising on export opportunities in regulated and semi-regulated markets. The aim is growth: by , the industry is expected to become the sixth largest globally. India ranks third in production volume with 10 per cent share, and 14th by value with 1. The body is responsible for the manufacture, sale, import, export and clinical research of drugs in India. B y now the story of the Solapur bust was everywhere. Newspapers gave it display on the front pages, TV anchors talked about it wildly, Solapur became a hub for reporters, and Avon Life Sciences and ephedrine trended on Twitter. The photo of officers gathered behind packets of ephedrine stacked on a table nudged him to board a flight to Mumbai. Odney had a series of highly publicised meetings, something which was uncommon in the US, where the DEA agent is a mysterious figure. Also watching the big coverage were Shringi and Jain, who had gone underground. Their mobiles were switched off even as officers across Mumbai and Thane were on a manhunt. Through a network of informants on Mira Road, where Shringi had a flat, it was learnt he was hiding out in Andheri. Years of police work had taught Shelke to never leave any personal detail of the accused untouched, and to never turn his back on a stakeout. Soon the dealer received a message of a change in location. A man of humble beginnings, he owned 11 companies including Avon but had fallen upon bad times. It was then that he met an acquaintance, Jay Mukhi, at Ladies Bar in the suburbs where he drank his woes away. Mukhi, a broker and supplier of chemicals, was a man with a dubious reputation, not the least because he was always in bars but because of the company he kept. Kishore had served time for a fake currency racket. He too was of an entrepreneurial spirit, and when he heard of a company with a licence to manufacture ephedrine, he promised Jain a business deal that would build an empire. Soon Rathod was on the phone to a childhood friend from a village called Paldi in Gujarat. That friend was Vicky Goswami. There were hundreds of undeleted messages. A gold mine had been uncovered. On January , , Jain, Shringi and Goswami spoke about the delivery of 50 kg of ephedrine that had been dispatched from Mumbai and the method of payment. With new information that directly indicted Jain, the police began tailing him. Jain lived his life online so they went through his mails, his chat history, scanned his call logs, got proof that he had been issued a visa for Kenya, and a stamp on his passport showed that he travelled to the country. They tapped his phone. They recovered a WhatsApp message detailing a deal for kg of ephedrine that would be dropped off in a black car next to a dargah on the busy Mohammad Ali Road. They nabbed Jain early one morning near Mahim. When the don was satisfied with the purity, he asked for the note number in the hawala system so that he could pay for the powder. D octor Sabeh has been yelling down the phone. The number of people addicted to the drug is on the rise as the Ministry of Interior in conjunction with WHO conducts a detailed study on Tramadol addiction. Drug traffickers are looking at the sea as an alternative route. In , more than million containers were shipped worldwide, yet only 2 per cent of these were inspected. Not too long ago, the waters of the Indian Ocean were a playground for pirates. With lawlessness in Somalia, an inefficient state in Sudan and weak rule of law in Kenya, the coast of Africa was terrorised by Somali pirates. The international community responded with the Combined Task Force , a multinational coalition naval taskforce tasked with anti-piracy operations in the Horn of Africa. India is a member of this taskforce that has had remarkable success as piracy in the Indian Ocean has dropped. In an incident that attracted a lot of attention, a vessel belonging to Hoeigh Autoliners set sail from Mumbai to Mombasa in September It traversed 2, miles and docked at the port. Late in the night, on a tip-off from the DEA, several elite Kenyan police units raided the vessel. The Kenyan authorities ordered the port shut and Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta publicly debated whether he ought to blow the ship up at sea. But nobody took responsibility for the drugs aboard the ship. All illicit business happens here and is controlled by traders supported by customs personnel and powerful people in government. Incidents involving India are on the rise: in April , the Australian Coalition Maritime Forces picked up a Gujarat-registered boat off the coast of Kenya with heroin worth Rs 2 crore. F rom selfies in Nairobi hotels to group photos under palm trees in Mombasa, Shringi and Jain documented their Kenya trip on Facebook for all to see. Avon Life Sciences would ship 10 tonnes of ephedrine to Mombasa every month from Mumbai while Narendra Kacha, a chemist and an associate of Rathod, would purify ephedrine in Gujarat. In order to not arouse any suspicion, the ephedrine would be stuffed in sacks of rice or sugar with the help of two port employees. From Mombasa the ephedrine would be routed to Dr Abdallah, a scientist and member of the east African drug mafia, who would set up a lab in Tanzania where Goswami had access to airstrips. The bulk of the ephedrine would be delivered to Abdallah, with which he would make meth that would be sent to South Africa via a white courier because he would be less likely to be stopped. From there the meth would journey to the streets of the United States and Europe after keeping some for the South African market. The cost per kg would be Rs 50, From the first batch of kg, the syndicate aimed to earn Rs 60 crore. Mamta Kulkarni was present at many meetings. Vicky had decided that she would front Avon Life Sciences. She would legally buy more than 50 per cent of the shares, then valued at Rs45 in the market, at a substantially reduced rate, and start trading with a company called Saburi Pharma owned by Abdallah, who would open an office in Mombasa. Alia Allana. The Middle East, foreign policy, crime, fashion, and social media are her areas of interest. A recent paper by two IISc researchers on room temperature superconductivity has raised questions and charges of fraud over its findings. Reportage The India connection How drug exports to the Middle East fuel addiction there, and a mafia's gambit to make India a base of operations. Crime by Alia Allana Nov 15, What sort of courtroom lets out men arrested with hundreds of kilograms of heroin. On a hunch, Nagarkar sent the white powder to the lab for a test. He had extracted a confession. What do you want? With piracy on the decline, another challenge arose. In a handwritten note, the partnership plan was drawn up: Vicky and Abdallah: 33 per cent Jay Mukhi and Rathod: 33 per cent Manoj Jain: 25 per cent Shringi: 8 per cent Mamta Kulkarni was present at many meetings. The cover story of the November edition of Fountain Ink. Alia Allana is a staff reporter at Fountain Ink. Related Stories Reportage Science Noise or signal, the jury is out A recent paper by two IISc researchers on room temperature superconductivity has raised questions and charges of fraud over its findings. Reportage A red letter day Demonetisation was a windfall for Sonagachi's sex workers, besieged by customers eager for a last bit of fun with their big notes before the sun rose on November 9. Reportage Media Ten reasons ScoopWhoop is the new big media How the well-funded start-up cracked the code of the viral content. Sign in with Google or.

Libya: Providing Health Care in an 'Oasis of Calm'

Tobruk buying MDMA pills

An investigation into the vessel reveals a network of criminals associated with the shipment — with connections to the Assad family, a gang in Libya, and London-registered shell companies. On the evening of December 2, , the cargo ship Noka set sail from the Syrian port of Latakia, bound for eastern Libya. The vessel was packed with goods sent by two agents outside Damascus. Just past Cyprus, the Noka switched off its automatic identification system, a device that announces its position to other ships and is used to avoid collisions. After a search they seized the drugs and arrested its crew of Banned in the s, counterfeit Captagon pills developed a following in the Middle East, particularly in Gulf states like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar — and more recently among fighters in Syria. But the pills are still usually designed to resemble the original tablets. Over the last few years, a growing number of shipments of Captagon originating in Latakia have been seized at Libyan, Italian, Greek and Romanian ports. The largest haul, seized at the port of Salerno near Naples in June , included more than 14 tons of Captagon worth an estimated 1 billion euros on the street. As the trade has grown, so have allegations that figures and militias linked to the Syrian regime are closely involved. Now, by examining Greek, Italian, and Libyan court documents, company registration data, and ship tracking data, and by conducting interviews with law enforcement officials and experts, OCCRP and IRPI have uncovered previously unreported details about a network of Syrian criminals and shell companies linked to the Noka and the wider Captagon trade. Reporters found that the man who owned the Noka, a Syrian named Taher Al-Kayali now based in Latakia, was convicted in Italy in for stealing and smuggling luxury yachts. Kayali also has ties to Mudar Al-Assad, a cousin of Bashar Al-Assad, whose company controls a marina and tourism complex in Latakia where Kayali runs a cafeteria. Four alleged members of the gang were sentenced to death by firing squad for their role in the Noka and other shipments into Libya. While in Italy, Kayali was convicted in two separate criminal cases. According to a report from news agency Adnkronos, Italian police arrested him for leading a gang that smuggled stolen luxury cars out of the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands to countries including the United Arab Emirates and Japan. He was convicted in of criminal association and receiving and selling stolen goods, but was later pardoned. This came after a police operation exposed how an international gang had smuggled stolen luxury yachts across the Mediterranean basin. A page verdict obtained by IrpiMedia shows that Kayali and another Syrian were ordering the theft of the yachts through Italian associates, who organized the thefts in Italian ports, then drove the stolen boats to countries like Croatia, Egypt, or Greece. Italian police referred to Kayali as a ringleader of this group and charged him with theft and handling stolen goods. In January , he was sentenced in absentia to six and a half years in prison. Kayali, who denies having anything to do with the drug trade, later set up various shell companies outside Syria through which he has continued to do business. On March 4, , he registered a company called Neptunus Overseas Limited at 27 Old Gloucester Street in London, a four-story residential building used by hundreds of companies as a fake address. The same year, he set up another company in Latakia, Neptunus LLC, which describes itself as a maritime agency, providing vessel management and support and supply of vessels. Reporters were unable to find any additional information about Sharif. Daboul and Mufti run a company that manufactures chemical products, including detergent, which had been used in the Noka shipment to disguise the smell of the drugs. As for the goods, we informed the owners to take them and to have them shipped to wherever they like. The Noka was used to service the so-called Lamira Line, a maritime link between Latakia and other eastern Mediterranean ports launched four months before the Hellenic Coast Guard busted the Noka and apparently halted shortly after. But who exactly controlled the route is difficult to determine. In August , the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, which is close to Hezbollah, an ally of the Syrian regime, ran a short piece announcing that the Lamira Line had been launched by the Latakia-based Neptunus Company. He said his company had run advertisements for the Lamira Line, but did not say who owned the company behind it. But the trail ended there. The office manager of Li-Marine Inc. With the growth of the Captagon trade have followed increasing suspicions of Syrian regime involvement. Historically, illicit Captagon has been produced in Eastern Europe, Turkey, and Lebanon, but production grew in Lebanon after the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, as Hezbollah sought to replenish its coffers. The Bekaa Valley along the border with Syria — also a site of illegal cannabis cultivation — became a major manufacturing center. The Syrian civil war marked a turning point, as Captagon demand surged among fighters. Production gradually shifted into Syria, taking advantage of both the chaos of the war and the production and transport infrastructure — such as functioning roads, electricity, and running water — that was already in place. The estimate from Italian authorities for the Salerno bust came out to around 12 euros per pill. Adnan Haj Omar, who led the research team, told OCCRP that the size of the busts — and the fact that they were all ignored by Syrian state media — suggested that an organized drug transit network was behind the trade, able to influence state institutions and decision-making bodies. Syrian Customs, in charge of controlling maritime exports and the imports and transit of goods, did not reply to a request for comment. The Journal of International Affairs report pointed to the ability to quickly shift smuggling routes in reaction to increased enforcement. In , for example, after a crackdown by Turkish border guards, alternate routes through Jordan and Lebanon quickly saw a surge in traffic. The report suggests that centralized coordination is responsible for the majority of the Captagon smuggling, or that the organizations involved are coordinated — again implying alignment with the Assad government. Researchers also cite the fact that so much of the Captagon trade originates from Latakia. The Assad family hometown, Qardaha, is less than 30 km outside Latakia. Kayali runs a cafe within this coastal stronghold, inside the resort owned by another Assad relative, a cousin named Mudar Al-Assad. While some Captagon moves overland via neighboring Jordan and Iraq to the oil-rich Gulf states, overseas routes from the Syrian coast are also popular because smugglers can avoid checkpoints and border crossings, allowing larger quantities to be moved with less risk. Libya has increasingly become a key node on this route, from where drugs are moved to neighboring Chad, Egypt, or directly to the Gulf, according to researchers. The link between Syria and Libya appears to have grown since , when the renegade Libyan General Khalifa Haftar launched his Operation Dignity campaign to expel Islamist forces from Benghazi and came to control much of eastern Libya. Haftar and the Assad regime found themselves on the same side of a regional geopolitical divide, both backed by Russia and fighting forces backed by Turkey. In May , Fathi Bashagha, interior minister in the Tripoli-based government recognized by the United Nations and backed by Turkey, accused the Assad regime, and Haftar, of benefiting from the Syria-to-Libya drug pipeline. Particularly revealing are the operations of a gang allegedly led by Mahmud Abdulilah Dajj, a Syrian-Libyan whom the court sentenced in absentia to death by firing squad. On July 21, , the Benghazi Court of Appeals handed down a verdict accusing Dajj — who is now in Syria — and his aides for involvement in the Noka shipment, as well as three shipments seized in Libya: one in the Al Khums port near Tripoli in western Libya, one in Benghazi, and another in Tobruk in eastern Libya. Dajj himself usually arrived in Libya two days before the shipments arrived, and left after the containers were cleared. The court papers say Dajj asked a representative of the Libya East Company to bribe customs officers so that consignments arriving at Benghazi would be cleared without an inspection. Then they bundled the drugs into blankets, packed them into cardboard boxes, and loaded them into a refrigerated truck which Dajj drove to an unknown destination, they said. According to a court official, Saad and Ajjan — both of whom were sentenced to death by firing squad — are still in prison. Al Tayr has continued to operate despite the court ruling, promoting maritime shipments between Syria and Libya on its Facebook page. With the economies of both Syria and Libya decimated, and armed groups and militias controlling part of their territories, there is little reason to believe the Captagon trade will decline any time soon. In one of the latest busts, more than 5. As for Kayali, he has emerged relatively unscathed from his links to the Noka, and appears to be benefitting from Assad family ties. OCCRP attempted to reach Mudar for comment by courier service through his Damascus-based company, but the delivery was refused. Key Findings. Taher al-Kayali, owner of the cargo ship Noka, has connections to a cousin of Bashar Al-Assad and convictions in Italy for smuggling stolen cars and yachts. Kayali and others linked to the Noka registered shell companies in the U. The Noka shipment was allegedly destined for a smuggling gang in eastern Libya. The web of connections shows how the booming trade in this little-known drug is being run from Latakia, a Syrian port under direct regime control. The largest shipment of Captagon ever busted — in Italy in summer — and the largest busted in Romania also originated from Latakia. Related Articles. Senior Airbus executives corresponded with an intermediary for controversial helicopter deals in Kuwait after the European company came under scrutiny for its dealings with middlemen, emails obtained by reporters show. When an apparent fraudster impersonated a famous football agent and asked FC Barcelona for 1 million euros, sources say the club attempted to send the money. Though the payment was eventually blocked, experts worry the incident is a sign that football remains vulnerable to corruption despite repeated calls for stronger oversight. Nearly , internal documents leaked from Steward Health Care to OCCRP show how a private equity firm, real estate investors and top executives drained billions from the hospital operator as it lurched towards bankruptcy and failed hospital patients. Also published by our partners Daraj. June 16th, Cyprus , Libya , Syrian Arab Republic. By that time, however, Kayali had moved to Latakia, and was never arrested. He pointed to the fact that the crew had been released. Who Ran the Lamira Line? Assad Family Fortress With the growth of the Captagon trade have followed increasing suspicions of Syrian regime involvement. Other researchers have come to similar conclusions. The Libyan Links While some Captagon moves overland via neighboring Jordan and Iraq to the oil-rich Gulf states, overseas routes from the Syrian coast are also popular because smugglers can avoid checkpoints and border crossings, allowing larger quantities to be moved with less risk. A Blossoming Trade With the economies of both Syria and Libya decimated, and armed groups and militias controlling part of their territories, there is little reason to believe the Captagon trade will decline any time soon. Join the fight. Hold power to account. Your cookie preferences. We use cookies to improve your experience by storing data about your preferences, your device or your browsing session. We also use cookies to collect anonymized data about your behaviour on our websites, and to understand how we can best improve our services. To find our more details, view our Cookie Policy. Audience Measurement Cookies. Essential Cookies. 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