The original assassins had hashish, the Moros in the Philippines used a native opioid, the Somali pirates and terrorists chew khat, and now there is a new terrorist drug of choice…Captagon. Numerous dead Hamas terrorists in Israel were found with pockets full of what is called “the poor man’s cocaine”.
What is Captagon and why should we be concerned about it?
Captagon was the brand name for a legal drug used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, narcolepsy, and depression in the 1960s and 1970s. The substance became illegal in most countries, including the United States, in the 1980s. Today, counterfeit captagon production is concentrated in Syria and Lebanon, and serves as a primary source of revenue for the Bashar al-Assad regime. Multiple relatives of the Syrian dictator are involved in narcotrafficking operations. Regional seizure data valued the captagon trade at $5.7 billion in 2021.
What are the effects of the new Captagon? The benefits to the terrorists who consume these little pills like candy are euphoria and a feeling of invincibility. Illicit Captagon was used by ISIS in 2015. They both took it and sold it to fund their activities. This same drug has been found in Ukraine during the recent conflict.
