The Smuggling of Kaptagon: From Origins to War Trade

This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Christoph Reuter of Der Spiegel magazine, an award winning journalist and conflict reporter. They talk about Captagon, criminal networks, and Syria's war economy. Later, Jon continues the conversation with Natasha Hall and Lubna Yousef, and they explore the intersection between criminal networks and war zones.

• Transcript, "Christoph Reuter: Syria's War Economy," CSIS, June 13, 2023.
• Jon Alterman and Natasha Hall, "Accountability in Syria," CSIS, August 9, 2022.
• Jörg Diehl, Mohannad al-Najjar, and Christoph Reuter, “Syria’s Drug Smuggling: The Assad Regime Would Not Survive Loss of Captagon Revenues,” Der Spiegel, June 21, 2022.  
• Will Todman and Natasha Hall, "Russia Waged a Cheap War in Syria. Here's What Those Tactics Might Look Like in Ukraine," CSIS, March 11, 2022.