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
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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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UN experts name Houthi official who tortured captives

UN experts name Houthi official who tortured captives
Updated 18 sec ago
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UN experts name Houthi official who tortured captives

UN experts name Houthi official who tortured captives
  • Abdulkader Al-Murtada is the head of the Houthi National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs and the Iran-backed militia’s negotiator in UN-brokered prisoner swap talks
  • Experts’ judgment has confirmed previous claims made against Al-Murtada by former captives

AL-MUKALLA: A UN panel of experts has named top official Abdulkader Al-Murtada as an abuser of inmates in Houthi detention.

Al-Murtada is the head of the Houthi National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs and the Iran-backed militia’s negotiator in UN-brokered prisoner swap talks.

The experts’ judgment has confirmed previous claims made against Al-Murtada by former captives.

In its 305-page report on Yemen, the panel accused Al-Murtada and other unnamed Houthis of severely abusing captives within the Central Security Camp prison in Sanaa, which is controlled by Al-Murtada. The treatment had resulted in the death of some detainees, and lasting injuries.

The experts said: “Prisoners are systematically subjected to torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, or punishment perpetrated by the prison’s staff.

“Based on the multiple reports received by the panel, various members of the prison’s management were and still are torturing the prisoners, including Abdulkader Al-Murtada.”

They added that prisoners were subjected to systematic psychological and physical torture inside the Al-Murtada-operated detention facility. Measures included forcing captives to stand for long periods, hitting their heads against the wall, dragging them, beating them with metal or electric wires, and banning doctors from performing lifesaving surgeries on tortured prisoners.

If the detainees asked for medicines, their Houthi captors sold them at exorbitant rates, although these had been received free from relief groups.

The panel also gathered evidence of extortion. Prisoners and their families were forced to pay high amounts to make brief phone calls or to meet, the report said, adding that the phone calls were often allowed “for the sole purpose of requesting families to transfer additional money, which will be administered by the prison’s management on behalf of each prisoner.”

Many former Houthi captives freed as part of prisoner exchange deals between the Yemeni government and the militia have said that Al-Murtada personally tortured them, or that they saw him and his colleagues mistreat inmates.

Citing the case of the kidnapped young Yemeni model and actor Entesar Al-Hammadi, along with other women, the experts said they were subjected to harsh mistreatment by their Houthi captors, with some of the women sexually assaulted and others put on trial.

The report added: “Women in detention are also sexually assaulted, in some cases subjected to virginity tests, and are often prevented from gaining access to essential goods, including feminine hygiene products.”

The report stated that the Houthis had also subjected more than 1 million Yemeni children to indoctrination and brainwashing. The youngsters had joined Houthi summer camps in 2023.

It added: “The panel documented that children as young as 10 years old are exposed to military training. The Houthis are also giving monetary incentives to promote a higher attendance rate in the summer camps by waiving the registration fees for the next school year.”

Hamzah Al-Jubaihi, a Yemeni journalist who suffered at the hands of Al-Murtada before his release in late 2021, thanked UN experts for naming and shaming the Houthi figure and urged the international community to sanction him.

Al-Jubaihi told Arab News: “This person personally tortures the detainees, both physically and psychologically, and he has a terrorist and sadistic mindset, as well as an inferiority problem.

“He was tormenting the inmates in front of me and stamping on their faces with his shoe.”


UN says ‘not possible’ to create ‘safe zones’ in Gaza

UN says ‘not possible’ to create ‘safe zones’ in Gaza
Updated 05 December 2023
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UN says ‘not possible’ to create ‘safe zones’ in Gaza

UN says ‘not possible’ to create ‘safe zones’ in Gaza
  • ‘The so-called safe zones... are not scientific, they are not rational, they are not possible, and I think the authorities are aware of this’

GENEVA: The United Nations warned Tuesday that it was impossible to create so-called safe zones for civilians to flee to inside the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s bombing campaign.
Israel had initially focused its offensive on the north of the territory, but the army has now also dropped leaflets on parts of the south, telling Palestinian civilians there to flee to other areas.
“The so-called safe zones... are not scientific, they are not rational, they are not possible, and I think the authorities are aware of this,” James Elder, spokesman for the UN children’s agency UNICEF, told reporters in Geneva via video-link from Cairo.
His comments came as Israeli troops battled Hamas militants in the southern Gaza Strip after expanding their offensive deeper into the besieged area.
Israel said it was at war with Hamas after the militant group’s October 7 attacks that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and which saw around 240 hostages taken, according to Israeli authorities.
In retaliation for the worst attack in its history, Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas and secure the release of all the hostages held in Gaza.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says the war has killed nearly 15,900 people in the territory, around 70 percent of them women and children.
As Israel’s offensive pushes deeper into Gaza, international aid organizations have warned that civilians in the densely-populated territory are running out of places to flee to.
Elder insisted that the safe zones declared by Israel “cannot be safe nor humanitarian when unilaterally declared.”
The pretense that there is somewhere safe for people to flee to is “callous,” he said.
He stressed that in a proper safe zone, “you can guarantee the conditions of food, water, medicine and shelter.”
Elder, who spent the past week or so in Gaza, stressed that none of that is assured in the areas designated as safe zones.
“These are entirely, entirely absent. You cannot overstate this. These are tiny patches of barren land, or they are street corners, they are sidewalks,” he said.
“There is no water, no facilities, no shelter from the cold and the rain (and) there’s no sanitation.”
Elder pointed out that in the overcrowded shelters that most of the displaced in Gaza have flocked to there had been around one toilet for every 400 people.
“Now remove those people and put them in... the so called safe places. It’s tens of thousands of people without a single toilet — not one — no clean water, nothing to drink,” he said.
“Without water, without sanitation, without shelter the so called safe zones risks becoming zones of disease.”


WHO: Situation in Gaza ‘getting worse by the hour’

WHO: Situation in Gaza ‘getting worse by the hour’
Updated 05 December 2023
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WHO: Situation in Gaza ‘getting worse by the hour’

WHO: Situation in Gaza ‘getting worse by the hour’
  • WHO representative in Gaza: Humanitarian aid reaching Gaza ‘way too little’
  • WHO deeply concerned about the vulnerability of the health system in the enclave

GENEVA: A World Health Organization official in Gaza said on Tuesday the situation was deteriorating by the hour as Israeli bombing has intensified in the south of the Palestinian enclave around the cities of Khan Younis and Rafah.
“The situation is getting worse by the hour,” Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative in Gaza, told reporters via video link. “There’s intensified bombing going on all around, including here in the southern areas, Khan Younis and even in Rafah.”
Peeperkorn said the humanitarian aid reaching Gaza was “way too little” and said the WHO was deeply concerned about the vulnerability of the health system in the densely populated enclave as more people move further south to escape the bombing.
“I want to make this point very clear that we are looking at an increasing humanitarian disaster,” he said.
Peeperkorn said WHO had complied with an Israeli order to remove supplies from warehouses in Khan Younis. He said WHO had been told the area would “most likely become an area of active combat in the coming days.”
“We want to make sure that we can actually deliver essential medical supplies,” he said.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday appealed to Israel to withdraw the order. Israel denied asking for the evacuation of warehouses.


France imposes sanctions on Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar

France imposes sanctions on Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar
Updated 05 December 2023
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France imposes sanctions on Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar

France imposes sanctions on Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar
  • France is working with partners to impose sanctions on Hamas individuals

PARIS: France on Tuesday imposed asset freezes on Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, the latest leader from the Islamist group to be added to its national sanctions list, according to a decree published in the country’s official journal.
France on Nov. 13 imposed sanctions at a national level on Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif and his deputy, Marwan Issa.
It is working with partners to impose sanctions on Hamas individuals and its financing network at European Union level, diplomats have said.


Jordan army say three killed in drug bust at Syria border

Jordan army say three killed in drug bust at Syria border
Updated 05 December 2023
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Jordan army say three killed in drug bust at Syria border

Jordan army say three killed in drug bust at Syria border
  • About 233,000 Captagon pills – a mix of amphetamines – and quantities of hashish were found during the operation

AMMAN: The Jordanian army said on Tuesday it killed three drug dealers during an operation that foiled the smuggling of large quantities of drugs across the border from Syria.
About 233,000 Captagon pills — a mix of amphetamines — and quantities of hashish were found during the bust, it said.
The army said it had monitored a group of smugglers who had sought to cross the border and applied strict rules of engagement to shoot at first sight.
“We continue to deal with resolve and force any threat to our borders and any attempt to undermine and destabilize the country’s security,” the army said in a statement.
War-torn Syria has become the region’s main site for a multi-billion-dollar drug trade, with Jordan being a main transit route to the oil-rich Gulf states for a Syrian-made amphetamine known as Captagon, Western anti-narcotics officials and Washington say.
Jordan has blamed pro-Iranian militias, who it says are protected by units within the Syrian army, for smuggling drugs across its borders toward Gulf markets.
Damascus says it is doing its best to curb smuggling and continues to bust smuggler rings in the south. It denies complicity with Iranian-backed militias linked to its army and security forces.