Captagon War in Sudan.. Is There a Way Out?

By Major General(police), Dr. Najm Eddin Abdel Rahim

On Tuesday, Sudan’s Organized Crime Control Department of the General Intelligence Service announced the seizure and dismantling of a Captagon factory run by foreigners in the Al-Gaili, northern suburb of Khartoum Bahri, an area under the control of the rebel Rapid Support Militia until late last month.

The department said the factory contained four machines with a production capacity of 100,000 Captagon pills per hour, adding that materials ready to manufacture 700 million pills of this dangerous drug were also seized.

The confiscation comes amid a devastating war launched by the rebel militia since April 2023, during which it was able to control more than 90% of the Sudanese capital Khartoum before the army was able to recover, up to now, more than 75% two years after the war.

It should be noted here that in August 2024, a Captagon manufacturing factory was discovered in the same area, according to what the official government spokesman announced, less than 6 months before this seizure. This operation is not the first of its kind in Sudan.

In April 2015, a Captagon production factory was seized and dismantled, also run by foreigners from two Arab countries and another European country, just before it started production in the Jebel Awliya suburb south of Khartoum in 2015 by the Sudanese General Administration for Combating Narcotics in cooperation with the General Intelligence Service.

A Captagon production factory with a production capacity of 7,200 tablets per hour was also seized and dismantled in January 2023 in the Blue Nile region in the southeast of the country, in fragile security conditions following the outbreak of the Sudanese revolution in 2018.

When Captagon is mentioned, the famous seizure of container drugs in 2015 in Port Sudan port, of 14 million Captagon pills coming from Greece via Lebanon hidden in 46 50 kg bags, is immediately brought to mind. It was destroyed in Salloum Customs Port in Red Sea State. One should also remember the seizure of more than 2 million Captagon pills at the River Nile State border crossing, which were heading from Khartoum to River Nile State.

In this report, we must link the local activity of drug gangs in Sudan with their activity in the countries of the region, especially the Arab Gulf countries, as these countries have been targeted by drug dealers, especially Captagon coming from Syria and Lebanon, which are considered the largest Captagon manufacturing countries in the Middle East, despite the recent decrease in seizures of this drug in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia due to cooperation between the two countries to crack down on drug smuggling through the two countries’ ports in the Red Sea. However, last January, more than 1.4 million Captagon tablets were seized. They were heading for the Kingdom’s territory.

Despite evidence indicating a partial decrease in Captagon smuggling operations to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia due to increased regional cooperation and tightening of control and bans in transit countries, especially with Sudan, according to a report by the New Lines Institute.

So, the reader will wonder why Captagon seizures have increased in Sudan despite the cooperation of the countries of the region to contain it? To answer this question, you must know, dear reader, that drug trafficking in general brings huge profits to producers and dealers, which makes them ignore the huge risks and severe penalties in the event of arrest. Therefore, they always work to search for new markets for distribution and new areas for production characterized by low levels of control and weak mechanisms for follow-up, prosecution and detection, whether at the entrances to countries, crossings or inside cities.

They often hunt for the poorest countries where the required drug detection devices are not available at their ports and entrances, as well as the most fragile countries in terms of security, where it is difficult to prevent crime, detect it and pursue criminals. Countries that suffer from wars and civil conflicts are considered the ideal environment in which all the conditions required for manufacturing, producing, distributing or using drugs as a transit country for other countries are available.

This is what the drug manufacturer, producer and dealer finds in a country like Sudan that suffers from the ravages of war that has destroyed a large number of the state’s judicial and executive institutions and weakened the levels of control to their lowest level.

Sudanese people should know that the rebel militia war did not stop at stealing property and displacing people, but it went beyond that to destroying minds and preventing young people from performing their required role in protecting them, and assuming their responsibilities in building their country, advancing its civilization, and working to develop it. Here, the role of the police and all security agencies grows in devoting their time and effort to protecting society from the danger of drugs and monitoring the activity of these gangs, especially in peripheral and remote areas.

The government should take this matter seriously and consider it one of the greatest current threats to Sudan’s national security, and it must provide all resources required for these agencies to do so. Sudanese diplomacy must also highlight the role of the militia in the increasing activity of drug trafficking in Sudan, focusing on the danger of this to regional and international security and peace, so that international and regional organizations will pay attention to cooperating with the Sudanese government and providing what is necessary to eliminate it before it becomes widespread and its elimination becomes a “difficult” issue.

– Dr. Najm Eddin Abdel Rahim : A Certified expert with the Arab Bureau for Drug Affairs.

Shortlink: https://sudanhorizon.com/?p=4191