WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Syrian Emergency Task Force welcomes the passage of the Countering Assad’s Proliferation Trafficking and Garnering of Narcotics (CAPTAGON) Act (H.R. 6265), a bipartisan bill sponsored by Rep. French Hill (AR-02) and Rep. Brendan Boyle (PA-02). Today, the bill passed in the House of Representatives by a supermajority of 361 to 69 votes.
The CAPTAGON Act requires the U.S. government to develop an interagency strategy to disrupt and dismantle narcotics production and trafficking and affiliated networks linked to the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria.
“If we do not work with our like-minded partners to first hinder the narcotics trade and replace it with a working system of institutions that serve the Syrian people, then Assad will add the title “Drug Kingpin” to his recognized global status as a leading mass murderer,” Rep. Hill said on the House Floor in support of his bill.
Captagon is an illegal and addictive amphetamine popular in many Arab countries, with effects not unlike those of similar drugs popular in the U.S. Over the past decade, captagon manufacturing and commerce linked to the Syrian regime have proliferated in Syria and grown into a multibillion-dollar operation. The Bashar al-Assad regime has relied on illicit drug trafficking to bypass sanctions imposed through the 2019 Caesar Act to fund its machinery of death.
SETF looks forward to the passage of this important bill in the U.S. Senate in order to dismantle Assad’s narcostate and cut off the regime’s financial lifeline to commit more atrocities.
For press inquiries please contact: Veronica Zanetta Brandoni, Director of Advocacy, at [email protected]