Captagon had its first debut, barley a decade ago, as it started to gain fame as the drug that fueled the terrorist wars from ISIS to FSA.

Many verified testimonies have ID-ed this drug on dead ISIS and Al Qaeda fighters, from the mountains of Qalamoun to the Iraqi deserts. https://twitter.com/UpdatesLebanese/status/1283491957457801222

However, my interest is not who used it but rather where it originated and where it spread too.

Recently it seems that all drug busts in the Middle East/West Asia have one common thing, the Lexus.

Two symbols exactly, the Lexus car itself and the Lexus car symbol.

There is actually no open source knowledge on the background and why this exact symbol is used, so we'll have to assume the new Pablo Escobar, Middle eastern version, was a fan of this car when he was young. Can't argue that lol.

So where have this symbol been seen?

First, Lebanon. According to officials this drug was known to be produced in Bulgaria, then smuggled through Turkey to Syria and Lebanon. Then from there it used to go the gulf. However in the early to mid 2000's, Syria became a producer of this drugs and Lebanon the transit.

The first ever bust was in 2007, as Lebanese security forces were able to seize 103 kilos of the drug's power version heading from Syria to Lebanon. This was the first ever sign of production starting in Lebanon.

According to them, the drug is easy to manufacture.

The drug simply needs a chocolate making machine, with a specialized mold, and it'll be able to produce 700 pills/minute.

However by the start of the Syrian war, and lawlessness on the shared borders, producers started to shift their area of operations from Syria to Lebanon.

The smuggling routes used where Akkar and Northern Beqaa. Since then, the drug's production flourished, far from war and with a huge market that spread between Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and the Middle East.

However according to officials, they have a hard time fighting it.

According to testimonies, dogs that are trained to uncover drugs were not used to the smell of Captagon and failed to identify it most of the times. This is why scanners were used, in an attempt to discover only what looks suspicious. This led to this business's flourishing.

Some examples of the busts in Lebanon that were intended for export.

These 4 picture, two pairs, are of two different incidents in two different years. The first being in 2013, and the second being in 2018. In both busts, it was Syrian and Lebanese dealers.

However what's intriguing, is that this drug was never meant to be sold in Syrian and Lebanese markets and it is till today not famous. All arrested culprits testified that it was intended to be exported to the gulf, through Jordan or UAE, to KSA, the biggest market of this drug.

One of the arrested, was a chemist and was producing them to a Lebanese drug Lord, Security forces said so in statement then.

Here are more pictures from Lebanon. The Saudi prince was smuggling drugs with these Symbols too.

Now let's talk about Syria. Regarding Syria, so in Lebanon, security forces have not until today busted a single factory. All cases of busts, are either trucks moving from Lebanon through Syria to Jordan, or busts in neighboring countries for drugs that originated from Syria.

This is an example of the drug being smuggled from Syria to Jordan. It was seized by Jordanian border guards heading to Saudi Arabia.

You can see the infamous symbol there too.

In this example, Syrian forces busted an attempt to smuggle the drug from Daraa to Jordan.

Another example of this drug being sold on the local Syrian market.

Back to Jordan, here are some examples of how Jordan became the transit to KSA, when UAE is not available

This huge bust was captured in Jordan, destinated to KSA. What's funny is that at one point, KSA thought that since Lexus is a Chinese symbol, China is behind this drug.

This is another Jordanian bust of the drug being smuggled to KSA.

There are tons of other examples, so we will end it here.

So what we know now is that the drugs passed from Syria to Jordan to reach KSA. However when it's not passing through there, where does it pass by?

Lebanon - UAE - KSA through ships. In the last decade, UAE has been the main transit to KSA and a large market to the drug.

These are pictures from some busts in the UAE. You can notice the unfamiliar symbol.

And more examples from UAE.

This bust was heading from the UAE to KSA according to UAE media. You can notice the Lexus symbol.

There are tons of other examples, so we'll end it here.

Now let's see some KSA examples. Since KSA is an end destination and not transit, I'll just post some pictures without bust details.

According to KSA media, they usually bust 70% of all drug trafficking attempts.

The symbol was also detected in Iraq (see example below) and Turkey.

These were detected in Basra. They are probably enroute to Kuwait-KSA

So technically it's everywhere in the middle.

This is an example of this drug, originating from Syria, and seized in Greece.

This is probably when the trade started to shift from ME to Europe. These drugs were on a ship heading to China.

Will end this thread now. In summary, this symbol means that the organization behind this drug is huge, able to produce in the billions and has a huge network for smuggling. It's destroying lives, so it's high time the Lebanese and Syrian governments do something about it. END