Killing of Syrian Captagon kingpin turns up the heat on drug smugglers of the Middle East

Special Killing of Syrian Captagon kingpin turns up the heat on drug smugglers of the Middle East
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A photo from Syrian website Suwayda24 purportedly shows the compound owned by Captagon cartel leader Merhi Al-Ramthan after the airstrikes. (Supplied)
Special Killing of Syrian Captagon kingpin turns up the heat on drug smugglers of the Middle East
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Jordan has long carried out patrols along its border to curb the smuggling of drugs from Syria. (AFP)
Special Killing of Syrian Captagon kingpin turns up the heat on drug smugglers of the Middle East
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A picture taken during a tour organized by the Jordanian Army shows a drone flying over an observation post along the border with Syria, on February 17, 2022. (AFP file photo)
Special Killing of Syrian Captagon kingpin turns up the heat on drug smugglers of the Middle East
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Captagon packets seized at Al Haditha port in Jordan. (Courtesy ZATCA)
Special Killing of Syrian Captagon kingpin turns up the heat on drug smugglers of the Middle East
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Fighters affiliated with Syria's ‘Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham’ rebel-group display drugs previously seized at a checkpoint they control in Daret Ezza, in the western countryside of the northern Aleppo province, on April 10, 2022. (AFP file photo)
Special Killing of Syrian Captagon kingpin turns up the heat on drug smugglers of the Middle East
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Lebanon’s interior minister Bassam Mawlawi, left, gives a press conference about a seizure of a cache of Captagon tablets that was hidden in tea boxes to be smuggled, in Lebanon’s capital Beirut on January 25, 2022. (AFP file photo)
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Updated 11 May 2023

Killing of Syrian Captagon kingpin turns up the heat on drug smugglers of the Middle East

Killing of Syrian Captagon kingpin turns up the heat on drug smugglers of the Middle East
  • One of Jordan’s most wanted, Merhi al-Ramthan was killed in an airstrike in Sweida on May 8
  • Several top Syrian officials have been sanctioned by the US, UK, and EU for their role in Captagon trade

DUBAI/AMMAN: Just days after Ayman Safadi, Jordan’s foreign minister, warned in an interview with CNN that his country is “not taking the threat of drug smuggling lightly” and is ready “to do what it takes to counter that threat,” Merhi Al-Ramthan, a reputed Syrian drug kingpin, was killed when airstrikes targeted his house in the village of Shuab in the Sweida governorate.

Media reports quoting the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a second airstrike targeted a suspected drug-manufacturing facility in Deraa, a governorate in Syria’s south. A Syrian opposition activist said the facility was used by Iran-backed groups to produce and store drugs before smuggling them to Jordan.




Illustration map showing a second site bombed by the Jordanian Air Force that was said to be an abandoned water station in west Deraa province, which was reportedly used by pro-Assad cartels to manufacture Captagon. (Social media)

 


Long known to be Jordan’s most wanted man, Al-Ramthan operated on the borders of the kingdom, using unemployed men to smuggle Captagon pills out of Syria through crossings and porous borders.

According to a report in the Jordanian newspaper Al-Ghad in July last year, the State Security Court gave Al-Ramthan and others 10 days to surrender. It said a Jordanian court had convicted him of importing narcotic substances with the intent of trafficking.




Captagon packets seized at Al Haditha port in Jordan. (Photo courtesy of ZATCA)

Captagon, a highly addictive amphetamine, works by stimulating the nervous system, allowing the user to have increased alertness and concentration with little sleep. The narcotic became very popular during the height of the Syrian civil war, when fighters on all sides were believed to be using it.

A report published in April 2022 by the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy on Captagon trade in the Middle East said Syria had become “the hub for industrial-sized production.”

It further claimed that “elements of the Syrian government are key drivers of the Captagon trade, with ministerial-level complicity in production and smuggling, using the trade as a means for political and economic survival amid international sanctions.”

Caroline Rose, a senior analyst with the Washington think tank, told Arab News in February that there was no doubt that “Captagon is being produced and trafficked by an array of individuals that are very close to the (Bashar) Assad regime, some of them cousins and relatives of regime members.”

Al-Ramthan was known to be a staunch supporter of President Assad and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah. He was said to be operating freely with the security cover provided to him by the regime’s military branches and intelligence as well as Hezbollah.




Captagon cartel leader Merhi Al-Ramthanwas known to support Syrian President Bashar Assad, even thanking him publicly in posters. (Social Media)

A cattle herder turned drug dealer, Al-Ramthan took advantage of the chaos that befell Syria after 2011 and formed his own militia to carry out pro-regime “security missions.”

As Captagon pills flooded the war-torn country, he transitioned into a manufacturer and trafficker of the drug, establishing production hubs in Sweida, where they were reportedly supervised by a man called Ali Bilan.

Sources said Al-Ramthan’s wealth grew steadily with his career switch, enabling him to purchase land and properties in his hometown as well as Damascus.




Officers of the Directorate of Narcotics Control of Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry sort through tablets of Captagon (Fenethylline) seized during a special operation early this year. Insert, a close up of the pill inside a Captagon hidden inside a fake orange. (AFP)

For smuggling Captagon pills out of Syria, he was known to rely on homeless men and young boys, one of whom — a 14-year-old — was killed during clashes with Jordanian security last April.

The smugglers were paid handsomely, often in thousands of dollars, if they were able to carry out their mission successfully, the sources said.

The strike that killed Al-Ramthan, along with his wife and six children,  came just days after Syria was officially welcomed back into the Arab League. Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the secretary-general, said the May 7 decision was the start of a process to resolve the crisis in Syria and that it was up to each state to resume its relations with the country.

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The organization had removed Syria as a member in response to its crackdown on peaceful protesters at the start of the uprising in 2011.

Syria’s Foreign Ministry said it was treating the Arab League decision “with great attention” and called for “greater Arab cooperation and partnership.”

A meeting of the foreign ministers of Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, which took place in the Jordanian capital Amman on May 1, had produced a statement in which Damascus pledged to identify the producers and transporters of the drug.

It added that Syria had agreed to “take the necessary steps to end smuggling on the borders with Jordan and Iraq.”

Jordan has not claimed responsibility for the strikes in Sweida and Deraa, but analysts say the probability is high that the Hashemite kingdom carried them out, pointing out that the Jordanian foreign minister had not ruled out the use of military force.

“Our country has suffered tremendously, and we will do what it takes to counter that threat including taking military action inside Syria to eliminate this extremely dangerous threat,” Safadi had said.

Following the strikes, he said, “Whenever we take any steps to protect our national security and (face) any threats towards it, we announce it at the appropriate time.”




Fighters affiliated with Syria's "Hayat Tahrir al-Sham" (HTS) rebel-group display drugs previously seized at a checkpoint they control in Daret Ezza, in the western countryside of the northern Aleppo province, on April 10, 2022. (AFP)

In a series of tweets after Monday’s strikes, New Lines Institute’s Rose said: “Last week, we saw the carrot, but today these strikes may represent the ‘stick’ — an insurance policy to counter-balance increased interaction and cooperation with Damascus.

“Worth remembering that violent smuggling ops in fall 2021 and winter of 2022 (one of which killed a Jordanian officer) prompted the JAF (Jordanian Armed Forces) to loosen rules of engagement and for Amman to pump the brakes on normalization.

“Amidst all of these normalization efforts, there are lingering trust issues over counter-narcotics policies for Amman — particularly for the JAF which has shouldered an uptick in violent clashes with regime and Iran smugglers since the Nassib/Jaber crossing opened.




The opening of the Syrian-Jordanian border Nassib crossing on September 29, 2021. (AFP File Photo)

“These reported strikes could serve as a message to Damascus … that Amman not only has accurate intelligence on the southern, pro-regime networks that are producing/trafficking #captagon, but that it has the capacity to eliminate them when prompted.”

No official from the JAF or the Jordanian government was willing to comment on the strikes when contacted by Arab News on Wednesday. Security officials and politicians in Cairo told Arab News that they had no information of possible Egyptian involvement in the operations inside Syria.

Intercepted shipments of Captagon from the region are typically headed for the Gulf countries, including a recent 10 million-pill transfer from Lebanon.




This image grab from a handout video on March 1, 2022 shows Saudi anti-narcotics agents arresting Captagon smugglers during a special operation in Tayseer district of eastern Jeddah. (Saudi Interior Ministry video via AFP)

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly voiced concern about attempts to smuggle Captagon into the Kingdom inside consignments of fruit and other food items. In September, authorities seized the largest shipment of illicit drugs in the Kingdom’s history after 47 million amphetamine pills were found hidden in a flour shipment. The Captagon pills were seized at a warehouse in the capital Riyadh.

In the past six years, Saudi authorities have intercepted an estimated 600 million Captagon pills at its borders.




Saudi Narcotics Control officers sort through tablets of Captagon seized during a special operation early this year along the Jordan-Saudi border. (SPA file photo)

Western governments estimate that drug production has generated billions of dollars in revenue for President Assad, his associates and allies over the years.

In recent months, several relatives of Assad and top Syrian officials have found themselves on the sanctions lists of major Western powers for their involvement in the Captagon trade.

American, British and European authorities have formally blamed Syria’s government for the production and export of the drug, naming Maher Assad — the head of the army’s Fourth Division and the president’s brother — as a key figure.




A decade of appalling civil war has left Syria fragmented and in ruins but one thing crosses every frontline: the drug fenethylline, commercially known as Captagon. (AFP file photo)

Many experts describe Syria as a “narco state,” its government dependent on the export of Captagon and other drugs to stay afloat. Syria’s economy and infrastructure have been shattered by 12 years of war, which has pushed 90 percent of the population below the poverty line.

A Syrian activist who wished to remain anonymous told Arab News: “Al-Ramthan wouldn’t have been able to operate as long as he did without cover from the Assad regime, which could have delivered him within hours to Jordan, but instead chose to sell him out. His usefulness had come to an end.”

Other activists speculated that Al-Ramthan’s killing showed that, despite being a major drug dealer, he did not have the impeccable political connections that could have saved his life.

 

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Tunisia army helicopter missing: defense ministry

Updated 9 sec ago

Tunisia army helicopter missing: defense ministry

Tunisia army helicopter missing: defense ministry
  • The Tunisian military has lost a number of aircraft on training or reconnaissance missions in recent years
Tunis: A Tunisian army helicopter with four people on board is missing and feared crashed hours after vanishing from radar screens, the defense ministry said on Thursday.
The ministry has learnt that “communications have been lost with a helicopter which was making a night flight in the Cape Serrat area yesterday (Wednesday) evening,” it said in a statement.
“Land, sea and air resources have been mobilized in coordination with the interior ministry to carry out searches to locate the aircraft and establish the fate of its crew of four.”
The Tunisian military has lost a number of aircraft on training or reconnaissance missions in recent years.
In October 2021, three soldiers were killed when an army helicopter crashed during a night exercise in the southern province of Gabes.
The findings of an official investigation into that accident have still not been released.

Fighting rages at Sudan military site facility

Fighting rages at Sudan military site facility
Updated 37 min 30 sec ago

Fighting rages at Sudan military site facility

Fighting rages at Sudan military site facility
  • Sudan has been embroiled in a deadly conflict since mid-April, when fighting erupted between army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan against his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo

KHARTOUM: Sudanese army soldiers and paramilitaries fought for control of a military facility Thursday in Khartoum where a fire raged at an oil and gas facility, witnesses said.
The battles came a day after the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced in a statement they had wrestled “full control” of the Yarmouk weapons manufacturing and arms depot complex.
Witnesses from southern Khartoum said they heard the “sound of gunfire and clashes” around the complex, the most important military industrial facility in the country.
The RSF claimed that soldiers had fled the site, leaving behind large quantities of military equipment and vehicles.
The paramilitaries also posted videos online purportedly showing their fighters inside the facility, celebrating. Weapons, including machine guns, and large quantities of ammunition could be seen in the background.
Sudan has been embroiled in a deadly conflict since mid-April, when fighting erupted between army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan against his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo — commonly known as Hemeti — who commands the RSF.
Violence has spread across the country, most notably in the western region of Darfur, which is home to around a quarter of Sudan’s population and has never recovered from a devastating two-decade war that left hundreds of thousands dead and more than two million displaced.
The fire at the Al-SHajjara oil and gas facility near Yarmouk broke out overnight Wednesday to Thursday, witnesses said.
It was not immediately clear what started the fire but residents said they heard a loud explosion at the facility, where fierce fighting has been underway for the past couple of days.
Plumes of smoke still rose from the site on Thursday morning and could be seen from as far as 10 kilometers away.
Since fighting broke out in Sudan on April 15, more than 1,800 people have been killed, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.
Nearly two million people have been displaced by the conflict, according to the latest UN figures, including 476,000 who have sought refuge in neighboring countries.
Talks mediated by Saudi Arabia and the United States broke down, and multiple cease-fires have failed to take hold.
Last week, Washington slapped sanctions on the warring generals accusing both sides for the “appalling bloodshed” after the latest truce collapsed and the army pulled out of cease-fire talks altogether.
In October 2012, Sudan accused Israel of being behind a blast at the Yarmouk facility, leading to speculation that Iranian weapons were stored or manufactured there.
Israel at that time refused to comment on Sudan’s accusation.


Blinken: US to give $150m in aid for Syria, Iraq at Saudi conference on combating Daesh group

Blinken: US to give $150m in aid for Syria, Iraq at Saudi conference on combating Daesh group
Updated 08 June 2023

Blinken: US to give $150m in aid for Syria, Iraq at Saudi conference on combating Daesh group

Blinken: US to give $150m in aid for Syria, Iraq at Saudi conference on combating Daesh group
  • Secretary of State says US pledge is part of new funding amounting to more than $600 million

DUBAI: Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that the US would provide nearly $150 million in aid for areas in Syria and Iraq that were liberated from the Daesh extremist group.
He spoke at a ministerial conference hosted by Saudi Arabia on combating the group, which no longer controls any territory — but whose affiliates still carry out attacks across Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
The Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh includes more than 80 countries and continues to coordinate action against the extremist group, which at its height controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq. Blinken said the US pledge is part of new funding amounting to more than $600 million.
“Poor security and humanitarian conditions. Lack of economic opportunity. These are the fuel for the kind of desperation on which Daesh feeds and recruits,” he said, using a common acronym for the extremist group. “So we have to stay committed to our stabilization goals.”
Blinken co-hosted the conference as part of a two-day visit to the Kingdom in which he met with senior Saudi officials, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Blinken also attended a meeting of Gulf foreign ministers.
The Saudis have launched wide-ranging diplomatic efforts to wind down their war in Yemen, resolve a crisis with Qatar, restore relations with archrival Iran and welcome Syria’s President Bashar Assad back into the Arab League after a 12-year boycott.


Iran’s president to visit three Latin American countries next week

Iran’s president to visit three Latin American countries next week
Updated 08 June 2023

Iran’s president to visit three Latin American countries next week

Iran’s president to visit three Latin American countries next week
  • The state news agency said Raisi will leave Tehran on June 11

MEXICO CITY: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will visit Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela next week, Iran’s state news agency IRNA announced on Wednesday, adding that the upcoming tour stemmed from invites from the presidents of each of the Latin American nations.
IRNA said documents to expand bilateral cooperation will be signed between Iran and the three countries during Raisi’s visit, mentioning economic, political and scientific issues, but without going into further detail.
The state news agency said Raisi will leave Tehran on June 11.
The three-country tour will give Raisi face time with three regional allies, each of whom lead leftists governments that have been accused by critics of human rights violations.
Iran and Venezuela are both members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

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Israeli army mounts rare raid into Palestinian city of Ramallah, clashes ensue

Israeli army mounts rare raid into Palestinian city of Ramallah, clashes ensue
Updated 08 June 2023

Israeli army mounts rare raid into Palestinian city of Ramallah, clashes ensue

Israeli army mounts rare raid into Palestinian city of Ramallah, clashes ensue
  • Israel has said the policy of demolishing homes of perpetrators is both punitive and a deterrence to potential attackers

RAMALLAH: Clashes erupted after Israeli forces mounted a rare raid into the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank early on Thursday, in what the military said was an operation to demolish the house of an assailant.
A Reuters witness said a large military convoy arrived in downtown Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian government, leading hundreds of Palestinians to gather in the area.
Some Palestinian youth hurled stones at the Israeli forces, who fired live bullets, stun grenades and tear gas at the crowd, the witness said. Trash bins that were set on fire blocked roads as ambulance sirens wailed.
The Palestinian health ministry said at least six people were transferred to hospital for treatment, including three who sustained gunshot wounds.
The Israeli military said its forces were operating in Ramallah “to demolish the residence of the terrorist who carried out the bombing attack in Jerusalem last November.”
The twin blasts killed two people, including an Israeli-Canadian teenager, and wounded at least 14 others in what police said were explosions of improvised bombs that were planted at bus stops near the city exit and in a junction leading to a settlement.
“The demolition of the homes of fighters is a collective punishment that falls under the war crimes committed by the occupation against our people,” said Abdel Fattah Dola of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party.
Israel has said the policy of demolishing homes of perpetrators is both punitive and a deterrence to potential attackers.
Hours earlier the US envoy to Palestinians, Hady Amr, met with senior Palestinian official Hussein Al-Sheikh.
Violence in the West Bank, among territories where Palestinians seek statehood, has risen during the past year. Israel has intensified its military raids amid a spate of street attacks carried out by Palestinians in its cities.
The Palestinian health ministry said at least 158 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since January. Israel’s foreign ministry said 20 Israelis and two foreign nationals have been killed in Palestinian attacks in the same period.