Following the sudden fall of Bashar al-Assad, Syria has become the epicentre of a rare disruption in the global narcotics trade. The captagon market—valued between $5.7 and $10 billion annually—was long dominated by Assad’s inner circle, serving both as a financial lifeline for the sanctioned regime and a geopolitical weapon used to destabilise rival Arab states.
Now, Syria’s new interim government, led by Ahmed al-Sharaa and elements of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), has launched a sweeping crackdown. Major drug factories have been dismantled in high-profile raids, effectively ending industrial-scale domestic production. These efforts mirror the Taliban’s historic campaign against opium in Afghanistan.
Yet demand for captagon remains sky-high across the Middle East, where users range from labourers and students to warfighters. Economic desperation and porous borders continue to incentivise trafficking, raising the likelihood that this disruption is temporary. A multi-billion-dollar opportunity now exists for new actors to fill the vacuum left by Assad’s fall.