Islamic State jihadists may be fuelled not only by ideological fervor, but also by a black-market amphetamine popular in the Middle East.
“They gave us drugs, hallucinogenic pills that would make you go to battle not caring if you live or die,” CNN reported quoting a 19-year-old fighter named Kareem, who said he fought alongside the notorious group for more than a year. He was a prisoner of Kurdish militants in northern Syria.
A US official told CNN that it is believed that some jihadist fighters are using the drug Captagon, an amphetamine pill that can cause a surge of energy and a euphoric high.
Analysts say the use of Captagon could help fighters last longer on the battlefield, and keep up their motivation.
In addition to reportedly taking the drug themselves, militants in Syria on both sides of the fighting may also be profiting from the production and trafficking of the pills, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. The head of the agency, Yury Fedotov, told a conference in June: “[Islamic State] and al-Nusra Front are also believed to facilitate the smuggling of chemical precursors for the production of Captagon.”
Pharmaceutical Captagon contained a synthetic stimulant called fenethylline. These days, narcotic manufacturers are producing counterfeit Captagon tablets, stamped with the Captagon logo, but containing amphetamine as well as other chemicals, the UN office says.
Matthew Levitt, a former Treasury Department official who tracked terrorist financing, said there is a good profit margin on Captagon, since it is not expensive to produce, and is in high demand, especially in Persian Gulf states.
The use of the drug by extremists could appear to be at odds with their ideology of Islamic purity, but it appears militants could still find a battlefield justification.
Captagon is a widely used stimulant throughout the Middle East, according to UN reports.
Just a few weeks ago, a member of Saudi Arabia’s royal family was detained at the Beirut airport over an alleged attempt to smuggle drugs out of the country on a private plane, which created a huge row.
The drug was originally developed in the 1960s to treat hyperactivity, but was banned in most countries in the 1980s.
