Ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad led his country’s production and distribution of the highly addictive street drug Captagon, earning billions of dollars to operate prisons and maintain his brutal authoritarian rule.
The cases are still rare where organized crime and wholesale corruption get backed up by a repressive, autocratic government. As in Venezuela, North Korea, and Russia, deposed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s regime was such a case, characterized by centralized control, suppression of dissent, and a reliance on a powerful security apparatus. As prisons get emptied and mass graves are dug up, the scale of Assad’s brutality toward his own people is, sadly, becoming clearer.
Coming to power in 2000 after the death of his father, Assad’s early promises of political liberalization quickly gave way to authoritarian practices. Part of the Arab Spring, the 2011 Syrian uprising challenged his rule and escalated into a punishing civil war that lasted until Assad’s ouster this month. His forces were accused of widespread human rights abuses, including torture, murder, the use of chemical weapons, mass detentions, and the targeting of civilians.