Drug terror gangs planning to flood Europe with ultra-addictive 'Jihadi speed'

Middle East terror gangs are growing a multi-billion pound drug trafficking network which could flood Europe with a “highly addictive” narcotic dubbed “Jihadi speed.” There are heightened fears the captagon drug, developed by the toppled former Syrian despot Bashar al-Assad,will spread as far as UK streets within months.

Deadly addictive pills, worth about £10 a tablet, have been uncovered in their millions being smuggled out of Syria, through Turkey and elsewhere then as far as the Netherlands. Iran-backed networks Hezbollah are in on the smuggling free-for-all along with Islamic State and al-Qaeda affiliates, selling the drug on to grow their vast war-chests.

It is believed trade in captagon has expanded beyond the Middle East so much and into Europe that since Bashar al-Assad was toppled last year 1.1 tons of the drug was smuggled. Astonishing amounts of the drug have been found and one report seen by the Mirror suggests millions of pills were found in Douma, outside Damascus.

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A 60,000 pill seizure at Riyadh airport underlined the established smuggling network feeding the middle class drug consumption market across the Gulf States. But the illegal amphetamine type narcotic is highly popular with jihadi fighters as it keeps them awake and highly focused for days without sleep but it is also used by Arab elites.

The Daily Mirror learned of the new alarm linked to Captagon in a newly released intelligence report which warns the Captagon trade is financing conflict across the Middle East. It is being used to arm terror networks, grow their bank balances and presents a multiple threat to western countries such as the United Kingdom.

The new Syrian government, run by former rebel Ahmed al-Sharaa, is struggling to contain the multi-billion pound captagon cartels which are spreading beyond the region. Traditionally highly-addictive captagon was sold underground by Assad’s family and flooded the rich party scene in places such as the United Arab Emirates.

But a recently drafted intelligence report reveals: “Amid rising sectarian conflict, there is very credible risk intelligence that opposition groups have turned to the captagon trade to finance their campaigns against the central government, including direction from Iranian/Shia proxies.”

These groups such as Hezbollah and even Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are known to have flooded Lebanon and beyond with captagon. And it has already reached parts of Europe. It is feared the drug - which helped fund Iran’s shadowy Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Lebanese Hezbollah terror network is being exported by jihadist groups.

Captagon factories disguised as legitimate enterprises under the Assad regime have gone underground and popped up in ungoverned areas of southern Syria. The pills are being smuggled out of the Middle East and into Europe inside electronic goods under the guise of legitimate exports in large lorries.

One bust by Turkish security officers (pics) close to the Syrian border revealed assault rifles and 200,000 pills of captagon with a £2m street value. In Lebanon Hezbollah-related smugglers were found with 500,000 pills - street value £5 million - taking their drugs haul for transportation on the Mediterranean.

Sources say it is already being smuggled out via Turkey, into Africa and has even reached as far as the Netherlands to feed western narcotics markets. One security source told the Daily Mirror: “Inevitably it will reach the UK and have the dual effect of feeding addiction, increasing crime and it will also have a destabilising effect.

“There are known smuggling routes from the Netherlands into the UK and that has become a real danger for UK society - and the market is very lucrative. This is a multi-billion pound underground narco-marketplace but it is almost certainly being used to swell the war chests of terrorist groups like Islamic State.

“The known involved organisations involved are Iranian backed proxies such as Hezbollah and even the Syrian National Army but it is such a lucrative and now underground business that Islamic State is also taking advantage of the trade opportunities.” Our source told the Mirror that it is also suspected drug gangs have perfected the chemistry for growing narco-labs throughout Europe to make the drug more potent.

The intelligence report warns that: “Amid rising sectarian conflict, particularly evident in southern Syria over the past week, there is a credible risk that opposition groups have turned to the captagon trade to finance their campaigns against the central government. The drug, a stimulant that increases focus and wakefulness, has been abused by militants in battle and has fueled the party scene in gulf countries like the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

“Before Assad's fall, captagon exports propped up the Assad family and its patronage networks, presenting the sanctioned regime with an economic lifeline and a lever of regional influence and transforming Syria into a modern day narco-state. The regime flooded markets with the in-demand drug and only reduced flows in a tit-for-tat strategy in pursuit of economic and diplomatic normalization from neighboring countries.

“These groups, along with other previously uninvolved actors both inside Syria and abroad, collectively recognize an opportunity to engage in the captagon trade amid significant disruption to existing supply chains, while demand remains high. “With prices elevated, the potential for substantial profit is considerable.”

Syria has since 2011 post the Arab Spring being riven by conflict, started by an uprising against Assad’s murderous regime which morphed into sectarian civil war. Islamic State gained traction in Syria , making their HQ in Raqqa, where they ruled with a bloodied sword, beheading and attracting foreign jihadis such as from the UK.

One of the most notorious ISIS jihadi gangs was “the Beatles” led by Londoner Mohamed Emwazi, AKA Jihadi John who became thr group’s beheader-in -chief. Much of his gang including fellow Londoners Alexanda Kotey and El-Shafee el-Sheikh are now behind bars in high security prisons in the United States.

Emwazi was believed to have beheaded US journalist James Foley - and then over subsequent months, similar filmed the killings of Steve Sotloff and Brits David Haines and Alan Henning. Investigators are unsure if the video nasties were all the work of one terrorist.

Emwazi died aged 27 in Raqqa before the ISIS-held town was overrun by western-backed Kurdish forces. He had been targeted by a drone strike and died at the end of a Hellfire missile.