Syria’s Captagon Crackdown Spurs Shift of Drug Trade to Sudan

Syria’s new Islamist-led government says it has dismantled much of the lucrative captagon empire that flourished under former president Bashar al-Assad. Since taking power in December 2024, President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s counter-narcotics units have raided former regime strongholds, destroyed labs and seized more than 200 million pills between January and August 2025—20 times the amount captured in 2024. Dealers, law-enforcement officials and researchers cited by the Financial Times estimate production and trafficking have fallen by up to 80 %, although pockets of resistance remain and clashes with former regime loyalists, Iran-backed militias and cross-border smugglers continue. A prominent coup came in June with the arrest of Assad’s cousin Wassim al-Assad after he was lured back from Lebanon. The crackdown is reshaping regional drug routes rather than eradicating them. Analysts and Sudanese officials say Syrian syndicates have exported their know-how to Sudan, where a conflict between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has created permissive conditions for illicit industry. In February 2025 Sudan’s intelligence service discovered a half-finished factory in the al-Jaili industrial zone north of Khartoum capable of pressing 100 000 pills an hour, with raw ingredients sufficient for an estimated 700 million tablets. Smaller laboratories have since been uncovered in residential areas formerly held by the RSF, and police in River Nile State last year intercepted a lorry carrying more than two million pills. Captagon can cost only cents to manufacture yet fetch up to $25 in Gulf markets, making it an attractive alternative revenue stream as the RSF loses control of some gold mines to air-strikes. Public-health experts warn that addiction is rising in Sudan, where the drug’s appetite-suppressing effect appeals to a population facing food insecurity and a collapsing healthcare system. International researchers urge Sudan to increase forensic analysis of seizures and share intelligence with neighbours to stem a trade that has merely shifted geography following Syria’s partial success.