With the confiscation of roughly 14 tons of the highly addictive stimulant Captagon and the arrest of six individuals, Dubai customs authorities disrupted what was possibly the biggest drug smuggling enterprise in the Middle East.
The United Arab Emirates minister of the interior, Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, made the announcement on X (formerly Twitter) that the pills, with a street value of over 4 billion dirhams ($1.1 billion), were concealed within 651 doors and 432 ornamental panels and delivered aboard five containers.
'Poor Man's Cocaine'
Captagon, sometimes known as "poor man's cocaine," is an amphetamine-like stimulant that may provide increased energy and alertness, along with feelings of euphoria and even invulnerability.
The drug is simple to produce, which has contributed to its rapid rise to prominence amongst Middle Eastern youth and low-wage construction workers. It has also been linked to extremists in Syria and Iraq.
According to Bloomberg, a video showing the suspects smuggling the stash out of Dubai and into a neighboring emirate was published on Thursday, September 14. Authorities said they caught them "red-handed," although the UAE's proclamation did not specify the identity of the perpetrators or where the containers had come from.
According to the US State Department and Treasury, the UK Foreign Office, and independent researchers, Captagon is primarily produced and trafficked by people with ties to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and his ally, the Lebanese militia Hezbollah. The pills are sold for between $3 and $25 per tablet.
Captagon has become an essential source of income for Assad and his inner circle, who have been under severe Western sanctions since their deadly assault on demonstrators in 2011.
The New Lines Institute, located in Washington, DC, estimates that Captagon trafficking has produced between $7 billion and $10 billion in revenue over the previous three years, with most of the earnings going to Assad and his friends in neighboring Lebanon.
Samih al-Maaytah, a former minister of information in Jordan, told Al Jazeera last week, "Captagon is vital for the Syrian regime, Assad's family, militias and institutions in the army. They're all profiting from it."
Dubai's Biggest Drug Bust in Recent Years?
In terms of sheer size, Dubai's Captagon haul is the third-largest in the recent past.
In 2021, after being informed by their Saudi Arabian colleagues, Malaysian officials seized 95 million pills worth an estimated $1.2 billion that had been smuggled into the country hidden within rubber trolley wheels.
The 84 million pills worth $1.1 billion that were confiscated in Italy the year before weighed nearly 14 tons. They smuggled themselves into the Italian city of Salerno from the Syrian coastal city of Latakia by hiding in containers of paper rolls and metal gears.
Meanwhile, in June, Dubai Customs also arrested a guy who had attempted to smuggle seven kilograms of marijuana through the airport by concealing it in cereal boxes.
