Captagon trade becomes cash cow for terror groups

Captagon, among the most popular amphetamine type stimulants (ATS), has moved from being a minor illicit trade to a financial resource, especially for Daesh and Hezbollah, Michelle Spahn, Country Attache at Drug Enforcement Administration, Dubai Country Office, said. “In the 1960s, captagon was used to treat ADHD [attention deficit hyperactivity disorder], narcolepsy [a condition characterised by an extreme tendency to fall asleep in relaxing surroundings] and depression,” she said.

She said that producing and trafficking captagon is profitable as one pill, which costs around 29 cents to make, has a street value of between $3-$33 (Dh11.02-Dh121.21). “If we take an average of $10 per pill, and some high capacity captagon factories can produce two million pills per day, they stand to make a profit of $19 million.”

Labs have been found in Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and recently in Egypt. In 2015, more than 310 million captagon pills were seized worldwide, a huge jump from 178 million the previous year. However, she said, these statistics on seizures reflect only 10 per cent of actual amounts trafficked, as the data is collected through open source reporting.

Chemical suppliers

The real figure of captagon trafficked in 2015 could be around 3.1 billion, she noted. “Our goal is to focus on chemical suppliers, which will enable law enforcement to restrict access for these organisations to precursor chemicals,” she explained.

Precursors are the raw materials — chemicals — that go into the manufacture of drugs. “A lack of sources on captagon production, transportation and distribution within Syria — that is our main [intelligence] gap. How the proceeds from the sales of captagon get to Syria is another gap,” Spahn said.

“The way forward is to use a three-pronged approach: Awareness, prevention and enforcement. We need to aggressively pursue these organisations,” Spahn said.