Sacks of chemicals, plastic fruit … and millions of pills: inside a Damascus Captagon factory

Sacks of chemicals, plastic fruit … and millions of pills: inside a Damascus Captagon factory

Burnt-out rooms reveal extent of lucrative regime-supported operation to smuggle drug across region

It was no secret, everyone seemed to know where it was. When asked for directions, the coffee vendor pointed up the hill. “The Captagon factory? Straight ahead.”

On the outskirts of Damascus, just a 20-minute drive away from the centre of the Syrian capital, lay a sprawling industrial complex. Professed to be a soap factory, its products were anything but clean.

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