His most lucrative source of revenue is drugs. So large is the operation that Syrians call it the niqabeh, or syndicate
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskLife for his people should have improved after the defeat of Islamic State in 2019 and the regime’s recapture of large chunks of rebel-held territory. Instead it is worse. Electricity is more often off than on. The population of the areas under the regime’s control has halved since the start of the rebellion in 2011; 90% of them live in poverty, many surviving on foreign aid and remittances. The currency has lost 90% of its value.
A shabbier crop of tycoons took their place, according to a report by Harmoon, a think-tank based in Istanbul. Many are warlords who launder the proceeds of smuggling. Rather than invest in manufacturing enterprises which the regime might seize, they prefer to own fancy restaurants. A new one recently opened in Damascus, with Lamborghinis and Teslas parked outside. Racketeering is rife. Thousands are said to have passed through Branch 251 for not paying protection money.
Mr Assad’s most lucrative source of revenue is drugs. According to the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy in Washington, 15 factories within his fief produce captagon, an amphetamine; another 20 smaller outfits make the stuff near the borders with Lebanon and Jordan. Some have diversified into crystal meth. So large is the operation that Syrians call it the, or syndicate. Bedouin once used to smuggle pills in sheep stomachs and vegetable trucks.
Some say Mr Assad’s narco-business allows him to buy the loyalty of his fellow Alawites, the Muslim religious minority that has long served as his regime’s base. Many Syrians from the Sunni majority were chased off their land, swathes of which were handed to Alawites, who at first cheered on the regime’s brutal repression. But in the end few benefited from Mr Assad’s demographic engineering.
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