The dramatic fall of the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad has shed light on the dark corners of his rule, including the industrial-scale export of the drug captagon.
Islamist-led rebels have captured military bases and distribution centers for the amphetamine-type stimulant, which has taken over the drug market across the Middle East.
The rebels say they found a large quantity of drugs and vowed to destroy them.
HTS fighters allowed AFP journalists into a warehouse in a quarry on the outskirts of Damascus, where captagon pills were hidden inside electrical components for export.
In the warehouse, the boxes were disguised as pallets of standard goods, alongside bags of caustic soda. Caustic soda, or sodium hydroxide, is a key ingredient in the production of methamphetamine, another stimulant.
Captagon turned Syria into the world's largest narco-state. It became Syria's biggest export, dwarfing all of its legal exports combined, according to estimates drawn from official data by the AFP during a 2022 investigation. (A2 Televizion)
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