In December, the US Congress passed the Captagon Act, establishing its first-ever inter-agency strategy to monitor and disrupt how actors affiliated with Syria’s Assad regime, Hezbollah, and other malign actors benefit from the illicit drug trade, captagon.
Thus far, the US has designated sanctions on a series of Syrian and Lebanese individuals and entities involved in captagon production and smuggling, and is expected to outline its new inter-agency strategy for the US Congress this June. But amidst regional normalization efforts in the Middle East, what is the future of the US’ counter-captagon strategy?
This event explored the avenues and tools that exist for the US to help disrupt supply and demand, while promoting accountability, featuring:
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Ethan A. Goldrich, U.S. Department of State
Dr. Karam Shaar, Senior Non-Resident Fellow of the New Lines Institute
Mr. Matthew Zweig, Senior Fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies
Ms. Caroline Rose, Director of the New Lines Institute Project on the Captagon Trade
