Syria’s Suwayda: A new hub for the multibillion-dollar Captagon trade?
Key takeaways
- Air strikes and border clashes reveal how the Druze-majority province has become a manufacturing and trafficking stronghold following the fall of the Assad regime.
- The developments point to an emerging axis between the new Syrian government and Jordan to dismantle the burgeoning drug infrastructure in Suwayda, a southern province that borders Jordan, to halt the spread of Captagon.
- Here is a breakdown of why the Druze-majority province has become a regional hub for the production and distribution of the drug.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
Air strikes and border clashes reveal how the Druze-majority province has become a manufacturing and trafficking stronghold following the fall of the Assad regime.
xwhatsapp-strokecopylinkgoogle Add Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Syrian government forces have attempted to crack down on the production and smuggling of the drug Captagon [File: Bakr Alkasem/AFP]By Mohammad Mansour and Mohammed Al-Tarawneh Published On 6 May 20266 May 2026Jordanian fighter jets struck what they described as “factories and laboratories” for narcotics in southern Syria on Sunday, highlighting the emergence of Suwayda province as a key hub for the production of Captagon, a highly addictive amphetamine.
While the multibillion-dollar Captagon industry was once synonymous with forces linked to the government of former President Bashar al-Assad, recent investigations and military operations, dubbed “Operation Jordanian Deterrence”, show the trade has found a new haven in the restive southern province.