Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

November 28, 2022

Inside the Drug Trade That Funds Iran’s Levantine Empire

Captagon and the Middle East.

Dubbed “captain courage” by some, the amphetamine Captagon became popular among Islamic State fighters along with other combatants in the Syrian civil war. Paul Wood investigates the major role this powerful stimulant plays in the economy of Bashar Assad’s Syria and, to a lesser-extent, that of Hizballah-dominated Lebanon—two countries that are clients of the Islamic Republic:

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