Fighters affiliated with Syrias Hayat Tahrir alSham

HTS rebelgroup display drugs previously seized at

a checkpoint they control in Daret Ezza in the western

countryside of the northern Aleppo province on April 10

2022 A decade of appalling civil war has left Syria frag

mented and in ruins but one thing crosses every frontline

the drug fenethylline commercially known as captagon

The stimulant once notorious for its association with

Islamic State fighters has spawned an illegal 10billion

industry that not only props up the pariah regime of Pre

sident Bashar alAssad but many of his enemies © Omar

Haj Kadour AFP