The Jihad Pill

The Drug Used in the Hamas Terror Attack

I have written books about drugs, illegal (Warlords of Crime) and legal (Pharma). I have also written books about Islamist terrorism (Why America Slept and Secrets of the Kingdom). It is why I was not surprised when news broke the other day that the Israelis had discovered Captagon pills in the pockets of dead Hamas terrorists from the October 7 attack. It was the same drug found in the gunmen and suicide bombers who massacred 90 people in Paris in the 2015 Bataclan theater attack.

Most people have likely never heard of Captagon. Dubbed the “cocaine for the poor,” it is a cheaply manufactured synthetic amphetamine-like stimulant that is at the heart of a enormous illegal market run by criminal syndicates, Islamist gangs, and Syrian and Lebanese government officials. An investigation two years ago by The New York Times concluded that the production of illegal Captagon controlled by “powerful associates and relatives of President Bashar al-Assad has grown into a multibillion-dollar ope…