‘Countering Assad’s Proliferation Trafficking And Garnering Of Narcotics Act’’ or the ‘‘CAPTAGON Act’’.
The act is an "INTERAGENCY STRATEGY TO DISRUPT AND DIS-MANTLE NARCOTICS PRODUCTION AND TRAFFICKING AND AFFILIATED NETWORKS LINKED TO THE REGIME OF BASHAR AL-ASSAD IN SYRIA."
This is new to me. I had no idea Assad was a drug kingpin. But the threat is very real. Congress is notoriously slow, so the fact that Congress put forth a bill targeting Assad's international drug manufacturing and trafficking network, speaks volumes.
It seems Syria has turned into a narco-state since the destruction from the civil war. Assad is building up his fortune with drug money, creating a problem and offering to help solve the very same problem, but for a price.
"Captagon, a drug that is relatively unknown outside the Middle East, helped Syria turn into a narco-state after much of the international community cut off its economy due to its brutal crackdown on an uprising in 2011. It is a synthetic amphetamine-type stimulant, fenethylline, which goes by the trade name captagon, and has become the center of an increasing number of drug busts across the Middle East. Experts say the vast majority of global captagon production occurs in Syria, with the Gulf region being its primary destination."
Here's a link to the full story at MSN.
