By Anas al-Bar | 2024-07-15

Illicit drugs are a thriving industry in eastern Syrian towns dominated by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and allied militias, local sources said.

These groups have opened at least 10 primitive drug-production laboratories in the past two years -- including three in the first half of this year -- in Deir Ezzor city, al-Mayadeen, Albu Kamal and al-Tabni, they said.

On June 8, a laboratory was set up near a hospital in the border town of Albu Kamal, according to a Deir Ezzor 24 network source.

IRGC affiliates equipped the laboratory with instruments used in the manufacture of narcotic pills they had transported to Syria from Iraq via the illegal Sikak border crossing, the source said.

Iran-aligned militias previously turned several buildings in Deir Ezzor's Harabesh district into manufacturing and storage facilities for Captagon and hashish, Eye of the Euphrates reported May 27, 2023.

These facilities are controlled by Lebanese Hizbullah, Syrian Hizbullah, the IRGC and the Syrian regime's 4th Division, which has a long history of involvement in the illicit drug trade.

The militias also set up a Captagon factory in the desert surrounding the town of al-Tabni, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported March 20.

They turned farms in the desert over to the production of cannabis, and set up a tight security cordon to prevent anyone from approaching them.

'Economic backbone' of the militias

"The IRGC's networks continue to set up additional drug laboratories in Deir Ezzor and in all Syrian territories they control," Syrian Tribal Council spokesman Mudar al-Asaad told Al-Fassel.

They are building warehouses to store pills and other illicit drugs before they are smuggled across the border, especially into Jordan, he said.

They have built warehouses in the villages of Umm al-Zaytoun and al-Anat in Sweida, near the Jaber crossing, in Fawj al-Areen and in the al-Bustan Association buildings in Daraa, he said.

A production site at Ain al-Jawza on the border with Lebanon is under the control of Lebanese Hizbullah, al-Asaad said.

A drone manufacturing hub has been set up within Khalkhala military airport in rural Sweida to be used in shipping drugs by air, he said.

On June 19, Jordan foiled the latest attempt to smuggle crystal meth aboard a drone coming from Syrian territory.

"Drugs are the economic backbone of the militias," al-Asaad said, adding that they "are working today to grow their wealth by increasing the amounts of production and smuggling."

"Iran's proxies use the massive revenues they generate from drug trafficking, estimated at billions of dollars annually, to create problems and crises in the Middle East and destroy the lives of Syrians and other peoples of the region."