Great report
Captagon connexion (4/4): the challenge to states and societies
Audio 7:30 p.m.
The trafficking and consumption of captagon represent a real challenge for societies and states in the Middle East.
© Baptiste Condominas / RFI
By: Nicolas Feldmann Follow |
Nicolas Keraudren Follow |
Nicolas Falez Follow
14 mins
RFI devotes an investigation to captagon, an amphetamine pill mainly manufactured in Syria in Lebanon and whose traffic irrigates the entire region, and in particular the Gulf countries often considered as one of the main markets for this drug.
On its way, the captagon represents a challenge for the States and societies of the Middle East: how to fight against the traffic?
How to prevent and treat consumption?
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Cargoes thrown into the open sea before being recovered, small fast boats approaching the coast to unload their goods, bags of pills hidden in containers... In his office at the General Administration of Kuwait Customs , Osama Al-Shami, director of the office of intellectual property rights, lists the many methods used by traffickers to bring the substance into this small Gulf emirate.
“
It is a mistake to think that we are smarter than them.
Because every time we stop something, they come back with a new way of doing things
,” summarizes the customs officer.
Dressed in the traditional Gulf garb, the
dishdasha
, the burly man grabs the phone from his desk and puts on his pair of glasses.
He scrolls through a few videos of notable seizures.
Small sachets containing between 700 and 1000 pills concealed in bottles of ketchup, bags of potatoes and even bricks... The inventiveness of the smugglers seems unlimited.
And it therefore requires real cooperation between States.
“
We have meetings between the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
We also signed an agreement with Dubai.
As soon as they have information on a high-risk cargo, they warn us before the ship arrives here
,” explains the Kuwaiti representative.
Its men also undergo training with the World Customs Organization (WCO) and the United States Customs and Border Protection.
Necessary exchanges to face
the “huge challenge
” represented by drug trafficking.
“
The Gulf countries are rich and the captagon costs almost nothing,
recalls Osama Al-Shami
.
So if it's about selling it to individuals, there's a market for it.
The half-moon pills are indeed affordable compared to other drugs in the region.
To smuggle captagon from one country to another, traffickers do not hesitate to hide the tablets in fruit or cans of sauce or oil.
© Baptiste Condominas / RFI
In Beirut too, those on the front line of this fight are worried about the rise in trafficking in recent years.
“
Captagon has been a problem for about five years.
And we are still at a high level of trafficking: eight months ago, we seized a shipment of 30 million captagon pills, intended for Saudi Arabia
, "said an actor in the fight against drugs who wants to stay anonymous.
On his mobile phone, he too shows pictures of captagon tablets intercepted on the traffic route.
Hundreds of thousands of pills hidden in oranges, hidden in olive trees whose trunks have been hollowed out, dipped in engine grease... Faced with the variety of these strategies, investigators must redouble their efforts and multiply the methods of 'investigation.
Even if this source concedes that it does not have the necessary means to pay informants, it says it works "
on information recovered during seizures: fingerprints, telephone numbers, false papers
".
This makes it possible in some cases to trace the thread and identify certain warning signs: "
In Dubai, they intercepted captagon stored in condoms hidden inside oranges and this led to a seizure in Beirut of a concealed stock the same way.
» Other means of recovering information: competition between traffickers which leads to denunciations, as well as cases of revenge on the part of wives victims of domestic violence denouncing their husbands.
“
A hundred thousand tablets sell for 40,000 dollars in Lebanon and between 300,000 and 500,000 dollars outside Lebanon.
»
If the large quantities come from Syria, smaller volumes are also produced in Lebanon, particularly in the Baalbek region, confirms this source, which estimates the number of clandestine factories between “
50 and 70
”.
And where, she continues, Syrian refugees settled in the Bekaa Valley are generally employed by Lebanese to participate in a traffic that goes "
in both directions
" between Lebanon and Syria.
“
Captagon produced in Lebanon can transit through Syria and captagon produced in Syria can transit through Lebanon
".
Goods exported from the Cedar country pass through the ports of Beirut, Tripoli to the north, Tire and Saïda to the south, but also through the capital's airport and the Syrian-Lebanese road with the final objective of the Gulf monarchies and Libya.
In 2021, the Lebanese authorities received aid from France to combat captagon trafficking.
Paris has provided a scanner to find drugs hidden in shipments passing through the port of Beirut.
To thwart the controls, the traffickers do not hesitate to ship the drug tablets to Europe or Africa, then to re-ship it to the Gulf monarchies.
In March 2022, in Austria, several members of the same family were thus sentenced to prison.
They received captagon from Lebanon and in the back room of a pizzeria in the Salzburg area, the pills were hidden in pizza ovens, washing machines and other electrical appliances which were then shipped to Arabia Arabia
Ultra-repressive legislative arsenal
To fight against captagon in the region, some countries are also deploying an ultra-repressive legislative arsenal against consumers.
In Jordan, consumers risk a fine at best, and imprisonment at worst.
On the terrace of a café in Amman, Mousa Daoud, the founder of the "Jordan Anti Drugs Society", explains that his NGO conducts "
awareness campaigns
" near the borders.
Specializing in the prevention of risks among drug users, his association aims to “
give students as much information as possible to protect them from these drugs
”.
Clean-shaven, this elegant man with his white hat with blue edging specifies that his organization also does "
advocacy
", because he considers Jordanian legislation too strict with regard to consumers.
Today in Jordan, a person arrested in possession of a small quantity of drugs for his personal consumption or arrested under the influence of drugs risks between 1 and 3 months in prison, recalls this pharmacist by training.
A penalty that the consumer can avoid by paying a fine which corresponds to approximately 3 Jordanian dinars – a little more than 4 euros – per day of conviction.
However, Mousa Daoud believes that prison "
is not at all the right solution
".
The Jordan Anti Drugs Society is advocating for a different approach.
According to him, the consumer should have “
the right to treatment, access to a detoxification center
” and be put “back
at the heart of society, be associated with national projects
”.
On the other hand, the president of the NGO considers that Jordanian law has improved to toughen the sentences of traffickers, even if this is still insufficient in his eyes.
“
Today, you have cases where convictions can go up to 10 years in prison,
he welcomes.
Which is good for us, but we think we need to go further
with heavier penalties.
Music and saunas
For States, the challenge is also to provide treatment.
Al-Rashid hospital is located about twenty minutes from downtown Amman, on the heights of Abu Nsair.
This private establishment, founded in 1996, claims to be the leader in the region in the treatment of addictions and psychiatric disorders.
To access the "patient unit", you have to go through a metal door guarded by a security officer.
Upstairs, loud music is coming from a room.
"
We have here, as you hear, music therapy
," says the public relations manager of this hospital.
We also do treatments with saunas.
In this hospital you find the most modern techniques.
»
Each unit here bears the name of a perfume.
The one called “
Arjwan
” – “the violet” in Arabic – notably welcomes captagon consumers.
If we forget the bars on the windows, their rooms look like those of a classic hotel: a bed, a table, a bathroom with shower and toilet.
In the corridor, a patient wanders under the gaze of a nurse in a blue coat.
But impossible to speak to him: the management did not authorize RFI to speak with the people cared for in the hospital.
Al-Rashid hospital, on the heights of Abu Nsair, near Amman, claims to be the leader in the region in the treatment of addictions and psychiatric disorders.
© Baptiste Condominas / RFI
“
Right now, we have between 30 and 40 patients treated for their addiction to captagon, and we note that this is increasing over the years
,” says Dr. Abdelhamid al-Ali.
Patients who come from the Gulf or Jordan, transferred by doctors, sent by their families or who make the decision themselves to be followed, details this addiction specialist, as evidenced by the wall of his office covered with diplomas.
In this hospital, specifies the practitioner, the course of care is divided into three stages.
The first is to "
carry out a survey of the patient
" to find out what he took exactly and in what quantity, to determine "
the nature of the pills consumed
" and any mixtures, with marijuana, for example.
Second stage: detoxification, “
that is to say that we will cleanse the body of all drugs, all substances using treatments and medications
”, explains the doctor.
The third and final stage, meanwhile, focuses on the reconstruction of the person
via
“
new activities, with the help of accompanied psychological treatment, behavioral therapies, occupational therapy
”.
After this course of care, which lasts one to three months, patients continue to benefit from follow-up with a monthly update.
“
When the patients come in, they are agitated, violent, and sometimes very tense… But when they leave, they seem much calmer and calmer
,” says doctor Abdelhamid al-Ali.
An “unsolvable” problem
In the Gulf, there are also many establishments similar to this Jordanian hospital.
But despite repeated reminders in Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates, RFI did not obtain authorization to access it.
Drug consumption, punishable at best by a heavy fine and at worst by the death penalty, is a taboo subject in this region of the world.
In Kuwait, however, an association has agreed to open its doors.
The Society of Bashayer Al-Khair, created in 1993, specializes in detoxification cures.
Its members accompany people suffering from addiction to methamphetamines, which is called “
shabu
” in the region, to heroin, to hashish but also and of course to captagon.
“
It's a small building, but we're doing a great job here
,” assures its director, Dr. Abdul Hamed Al-Balali, as if to apologize for the dilapidated appearance of the establishment.
This smiling old man with a long graying beard recalls that his association is “
the first in the Gulf countries to take care of drug addicts, to treat them and to raise awareness about this big problem
”.
The Society of Bashayer Al-Khair follows the "choice theory" of the famous American psychiatrist William Glasser, according to which individuals depend on the balance between five needs: belonging, power, pleasure, freedom and survival.
To which Dr. Abdul Hamed Al-Balali added a sixth: “
spirituality
”.
"
Our theory is called MSS: method of spiritual motivation
", specifies the director of the association.
Created in 1993 by Dr. Abdelhamid Albeilali, the Société de Bashar specializes in the rehabilitation of drug addicts, including captagon addicts.
© Baptiste Condominas / RFI
After a brief presentation of the premises, Dr. Abdul Hamed Al-Balali goes to a large reception room, where a dozen or so men, all dressed in traditional clothing, are waiting seated on soft sofas.
One of them struggles to get up to close all the curtains.
While another connects a large plasma screen to which he connects a USB key.
In the video that is displayed on television, Dr. Abdul Hamed Al-Balali – a good ten years younger – presents his association in Arabic against a background of religious music.
When the clip ends, the curtains are reopened.
The old man speaks again.
"
We have groups that work in prisons and in hospitals
," he says, boasting of welcoming between 1,000 and 2,000 people each year and of making no difference between Kuwaitis and foreigners. Muslims or not.
“
We take care of everyone, because it is a global problem
”.
But a problem "
impossible to solve
", recognizes the head of the association, and that regardless of the country.
“
This drug will never stop.
On the other hand, you can reduce the phenomenon, save these
often very young people.
Georges may be one of “
those people
”.
This 30-year-old former Lebanese army soldier from Tripoli, the big city in northern Lebanon, is undergoing treatment in the heavenly setting of the detoxification center in Maysra, a town in Mount Lebanon, north of Beirut.
Between the mountain and the sea, he meditates today on his past and future existence.
“
My life was a life of death.
I tattooed on my hand: "The End".
For me, it was the end
, ”said the former captagon user gently.
If he had to give advice to a young person tempted by the pill with two crescent moons?
“
I would tell him not to touch, not only captagon, but any kind of drug.
And let him see life.
Life is Beautiful.
“My life was a life of death.
I came back to the good life”, testifies Georges, a young Lebanese in rehab.
© Baptiste Condominas / RFI
Captagon was not always produced and consumed in the Middle East.
Twenty years ago, this pill was manufactured and trafficked by European mafia networks, particularly in the Balkans.
Today, the trail of the captagon goes back to Syria and Lebanon and the traffickers do not hesitate to send the drug through Europe in order to circumvent the controls which are multiplying in the Gulf States, in Lebanon and in Jordan.
Could this drug, which is currently stopping over in Europe, find a new market there?
"
The profile of captagon is a profile that may be of interest to current fashion
", cautiously analyzes Dr. Amine Benyamina, who heads the Addiction Service of the Paul Brousse hospital in Villejuif.
Because drugs or synthetic substances - often made in Asia or the Middle East - are currently successful.
These “club durgs” are generally consumed to “
party
” and “
increase pleasure, especially sexual
”.
Captagon fulfills these criteria.
“
I hope it won't happen
” in Europe, worries Dr. Benaymina, but “
the current trend is more towards this kind of profile
”.
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