Firm SureChem, based in Suffolk, claims products were supplied in 2010 ‘for general laboratory use and are fairly unremarkable’
The Daily Telegraph
As the rebels swooped down from the north, Bashar al-Assad’s narcotics smugglers hastily tried to burn the evidence…
Story (paywall)
Also at
Dec. 14, 2024
Erbil (Kurdistan24) – On Friday, the Telegraph reported that most chemicals found in a Captagon factory in Douma, Damascus countryside – previously operated by ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime – were of British origin.
As stated by the newspaper, chemicals consisting of chloroform, formaldehyde solution, hydrochloric acid, petroleum ether, and ethyl acetate were discovered in brown containers bearing production labels of SureChem Firm in Suffolk, UK.
In a statement, the firm said it exported these chemicals in 2010 “as part of our last delivery to the country before the Syrian revolution began in 2011 and ensuing sanctions were imposed.”
The firm explained that these materials were meant for “general laboratory work.”
Evidence Burning Attempt
The Syrian opposition forces sources told the Telegraph that the factory was burning when they found it after workers set it on fire before escaping.
However, the opposition forces were able to put out the fire before all evidence could be destroyed.
The sources added that Captagon pills were discovered stashed in engines, furniture pieces, artificial fruits, and electrical transformers, ready for shipment.
In one of the factory rooms, fighters found hundreds of business cards that belonged to former government official Amer Tayseer Kheiti, who was suspected of being Syria’s Captagon trade kingpin for a long time.
The suspicion was particularly because of his links with Maher al-Assad, the ousted president’s brother and commander of the Army’s Fourth Division.
Read More