Thread by @rawiyahSy

According to SPIEGEL research, the ruling #Assad family is the producer of the drugs:
In village of al-Basa south of Latakia, Samer Kamal Assad, an uncle of the dictator,runs one of several Captagon factories owned by the family, disguised as a manufacturer of packaging materials

https://twitter.com/derspiegel/status/1279093431365591040

The transport, in turn,was handled by the businessman Abdellatif Hamide, who opened a rolling paper plant in Aleppo a few weeks ago -a "clean" address,not yet listed on the #EU or #US sanctions lists.Same rolls that were used to hide the Captagon pills are also manufactured there

For the transport, three containers were rented by the #Italian shipping company Tarros, which serves several Mediterranean ports in regular commuting.

But why then #ISIS?The suspicion is that #Italian gov,which still imports phosphate from #Syria to this day& whose previous cabinet discretely flew Syrian secret service chief Ali Mamluk to a Gov meeting in a private jet in March 2018,doesn't want to tarnish ties w/ Damascus

Last autumn Latakia port was leased to #Iran, whose ally Lebanese Hezbollah provided know-how& chemical supplies in early stages of large-scale production of drugs. The existence of the Syrian drug cartel owned by #Assad family cannot have been hidden from Italian authorities