BBC News Arabic Investigations

Syria: Addicted to Captagon (2023x6)

Air date: Jul 27, 2023

Captagon is a highly addictive drug that has ravaged the Middle East in recent years. Now a joint investigation by BBC News Arabic with investigative journalism network, OCCRP, has uncovered new direct links between this multi-billion dollar drug trade and leading members of the Syrian Armed Forces and President Bashar al-Assad's family. With evidence from deep inside the narco-state, we reveal Syria's military elite and its fragile wartime economy hooked on this lucrative illegal pill.