General Maher al-Assad, the brother of the Syrian president and commander of Division 4 in the Syrian army, is referred to by elements in the Israeli defense establishment as the Syrian "Pablo Escobar" after the well-known Colombian drug dealer who was the head of the Median drug cartel. This is the man in charge of the Captagon's Syrian smuggling system.

The Captagon manufacturing and smuggling industry includes several other relatives of the Syrian president and some of the military and political elites seeking additional side income following the difficult economic situation. The Hezbollah organization in Lebanon is also connected to the Captagon drug smuggling industry from Syria to countries abroad.s