After Assad fled, one news item stayed in my head. A warehouse filled to the ceiling with the drug, Captagon. The comment was that this was the favourite drug of Jihadists.
No doubt the “Captagon” used by ISIS or ISI, and other extremist groups, to enhance their soldiers abilities today is far removed from the Captagon of the eighties. Instead of just two main ingredients, illegal manufacturing likely combines several highly addictive stimulants with compounding actions into one destructive little pill. This “new age” Captagon, as with any highly addictive substance, is likely to cause irreversible changes in brain circuitry that govern impulse control and judgement, taking away a person’s ability to reason or think rationally.
Russia has been active in the Middle East for a while and only exited Syria when Assad’s government fell. RSF atrocities in Sudan have been done with the help of Russian Wagner mercenaries and UAE. Extremely barbaric slaughter has occurred in Sudan, and we all remember the butchery by Wagner troops in Ukraine.
ISIS attacks are so extreme and cruel and there is a deep psychopathic behaviour which was also active when Hamas extremists descended on the unsuspecting Israelis on October 7th, 2023.
If the brain circuitry is irreversibly damaged, this could be a drug administered to recruits (whether willing or forced) to turn them into psychopathic killing machines.
So who is manufacturing the drug, where are ingredients obtained and did Assad become wealthy from those purchasing it to spread terror and fear throughout the world?
I know my question has already been answered but do military motives outweigh motives to destroy all drugs which result in transforming a thinking, rational, responsible human being into a killing machine to work for some power hungry force?
Ronen Bergman, in his book, ‘Rise and Kill First’, tells us the history of extremist Israeli strategy against Palestinians. For example, in Lebanon, where fleeing Palestinians were living in flimsy refugee camps, that led to resentment from Christian extremists and some Israelis realized they could capitalize on that:
David Agmon was head of the Northern Command staff, one of the few who were in on Dagan’s secret ops. “The aim,” he said, “was to cause chaos amongst the Palestinians and Syrians in Lebanon, without leaving an Israeli fingerprint, to give them the feeling that they were constantly under attack and to instill them with a sense of insecurity.” In order to leave no Israeli fingerprints, Dagan and his crew recruited Lebanese locals, Christians, and Shiite Muslims, who detested Arafat and were infuriated by the way the Palestinians treated Lebanon and its people, as if it were their own land. Using those “operational squads,” as they were called, Dagan’s SLR began a series of targeted killings and sabotage operations in southern Lebanon.
In 1976 a massacre of Palestinian refugees occurred:
Sharon’s response was typical. Testifying behind closed doors before a 1982 Knesset oversight panel on the secret services, he read from a sheaf of classified documents about the massacre of Palestinians perpetrated by the Maronites at the Tel al-Zaatar refugee camp in 1976, when Rabin and Peres were running the country. Sharon dwelled at length on the horrendous slaughter of children, the blades that slashed open pregnant women’s bellies. Peres responded angrily, “Who knew [what was going on]?” Sharon replied, “The Red Cross reported that during those days of the massacre, our ships prevented the entry of vessels carrying medical aid. … You built the relationship and we continued it. … You also helped them after the massacre. We didn’t complain to you then. And I would not have raised the matter if you did not behave the way you behaved. … You, Mr. Peres, after Tel al-Zaatar, have no monopoly on morality.”
And a few years later, the link between militia taking drugs before committing atrocities was recorded:
Robert Hatem, Hobeika’s executioner, recalled that when the 350 Phalangists set out on their mission, “Hobeika told us, ‘Fuck everybody there. Erase the camp.’ We even took a D9 [bulldozer] to demolish everything.” The camp, Hatem said, “was made up of shacks, tin shanties. When we fired, everything came tumbling down. We shot in all directions. We didn’t check to see who was behind those walls.” The lion’s share of the damage was inflicted by a group commanded by Marom Mashalani. “Its members – including one of the commanders –” Hatem said, “took a lot of drugs, as much as it is possible to take. They didn’t distinguish between fighters and noncombatants or between men and women. They shot them all.” The result was a horrific massacre. The number of the dead is disputed—the Israelis say 700, and the Palestinians say 2,750. Sharon would later claim that “Lebanese forces [i.e., the Phalangists] would conform to the conventions of war when the IDF was controlling them, overseeing or coordinating their actions. … The terrible outcome is in the nature of an unanticipated and unexplained breakdown.” In other words, Sharon argued that he could not have foreseen what had happened. Classified IDF and Mossad documents, however, prove that the barbaric behavior pattern of the Phalange had long been known by the heads of the Israeli defense establishment. The prevalent assumption was that, straight after the evacuation of the PLO from Beirut, “the Phalange would find a way to move in, to settle scores—that murder would begin in Beirut from the first day.” Sharon himself had spoken with contempt about any possible military contribution the Phalange could make, asserting, “Forget about them. They won’t do a thing. Maybe later, when … it’ll be possible to loot, to kill, to rape. Yes, then they will rape and loot and kill.” The IDF and the Mossad didn’t contribute directly to the massacre, but the patronage they extended to the Christian forces and their failure to protect the occupied Palestinians tarred Israel’s name. As soon as the Israelis discovered what the Phalangists had done, they ordered them to cease and expressed their outrage. At the same time, however, they also began counseling the Maronite militia on what to tell the legions of journalists now covering the atrocity.
Religious differences within the Palestinian population have been exploited by their enemies.
And wherever there are differences of beliefs around the world, these are exploited by militia between factions causing continual suffering and strife. Drug use fuels the blind rampages of violence.
See also spread of drugs such as cannabis, opioids
The billionaires who profit in their illegal trade launder the proceeds at every stage of the supply chain:
The global illicit drugs trade is estimated to be worth at least half a trillion US dollars each year. Drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin generate large revenues all along their supply chains, from where the products (and precursor materials) are grown or made – principally Colombia and Bolivia, China, Afghanistan, and the “golden triangle” of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand – to wherever the finished drugs are consumed.
Earnings in the illicit drug trade are variable. Few people will make the kind of money that once put the Mexican former cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán on the Forbes list of global billionaires. But while drug “kingpins” are the industry’s biggest individual earners, they do not hold the majority of the drug money that is generated throughout the global supply chain.
Despite their frequent glamorisation in film and TV portrayals, drug cartels are basically international logistics companies. They work with distributors in different countries who deliver the drugs to regional wholesalers, who in turn supply the local retailers (dealers) who sell drugs to individuals.
Everyone along the supply chain takes their cut, with most people making much more modest incomes than the millionaire drug traffickers of narcocorrido lore. In our interviews with illicit drug entrepreneurs in the US and UK, we routinely spoke to sellers whose incomes ranged from pocket money to providing a moderately comfortable life.
Illicit drug use is damaging large parts of the world socially, politically and environmentally. Patterns of supply and demand are changing rapidly. In our longform series Addicted, leading experts bring you the latest insights on drug use and production as we ask: is it time to declare a planetary emergency?
Around 70% to 80% of the overall revenue generated by illicit drugs is shared among the many wholesale and street-level dealers in destination countries such as the UK and US, where the price per gram is at its highest. How this money moves and is used to sustain the illicit drug trade should be an important part of any worthwhile counter-narcotics strategy. But it rarely is.
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Professional money launderers
The people and organisations responsible for laundering drug revenues – that is, transforming them into untraceable money that can easily be spent, or into assets that can be held or sold – often exist under the radar of law enforcement and the media.
Yet the ways illicit drug money is laundered are hardly a mystery. Techniques include wire transfers to offshore bank accounts, investments in shell companies or deposits in cash businesses, and buying foreign currencies or (to a small extent) cryptocurrencies. In addition, the straightforward physical transportation of cash across national borders is an often-used method known as a “bulk cash transfer”.
The largest players in the illicit drugs industry, such as international cartels, national distributors and large-scale wholesalers, often use professional money launderers – some of whom have seemingly reputable jobs in the financial sector. In one recent case, US financial regulators fined TD Bank US$3 billion (£2.4 billion) – a record penalty for a bank – for facilitating the laundering of millions of dollars of drug cartel money.
Drug finance experts Mark Berry and R.V. Gundur have written extensively on the subject, and you can find an article about their findings in The Conversation.
Retired, living in the Scottish Borders after living most of my life in cities in England. I can now indulge my interest in all aspects of living close to nature in a wild landscape. I live on what was once the Iapetus Ocean which took millions of years to travel from the Southern Hemisphere to here in the Northern Hemisphere. That set me thinking and questioning and seeking answers.
In 1998 I co-wrote Millennium Countdown (US)/ A Business Guide to the Year 2000 (UK) see https://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isbn/9780749427917
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