worth a billion dollars, shipped from the Syrian port of Latakia, leading to international outcry. The case was tied to Camorra Mafia, a crime syndicate based in Naples. In November 2020, two drug shipments of hashish coming from Syria were seized by Egyptian authorities, the first shipment which arrived to Alexandria, included 2 tonnes of hashish, while the second shipment had 6 tonnes and was found at the Damietta port. The port of Latakia became under scrutiny of European and American police, as being favored by smugglers. In May 2021, Turkish security forces used UAVs to stop 1.5 tonnes of marijuana being smuggled out of Syria. According to the Centre for Operational Analysis and Research (COAR), Syrian seized drugs in 2020 had the value of no less than $3.4bn. The New York Times reported in December 2021 that the 4th Armoured Division, commanded by Maher al-Assad, oversees much of the production and distribution of Captagon, among other drugs, reinforcing Syria's status as a narco-state on the Mediterranean sea. The unit controls manufacturing facilities, packing plants, and smuggling networks all across Syria (which have started to also move crystal meth). The division's security bureau, headed by Maj. Gen. Ghassan Bilal, provides protection for factories and along smuggling routes to the port city Latakia and to border crossings with Jordan and Lebanon. The captagon industry is also supported by the Iran-backed Shia fundamentalist group Hezbollah. Overall assets worth 5.7 billion $ of Captagon exports from Syria were seized across the world during the year 2021. Southern Europe, North Africa, Turkey and the Gulf States are the major destinations of Syria's drug exports. In January 2022, the Jordanian military killed 27 drug smugglers who attempted to infiltrate via the Syrian border. 17,000 packets of hashish and 17 million Captagon pills were busted during the first qurater of 2022, a figure much higher than during the whole of 2021. Sources from the Jordanian army revealed that the drug trade is financed by a well-funded network of armed militias. In May 2022, the Jordanian government accused Iran of launching a "drug war" against the country, through its Khomeinist proxy militias based in Syria's southern regions. Officials in the Jordanian army described the rise in drug smuggling as part of an "undeclared war" waged to subvert "families, morals and values". In March 2022, international drug lord Bruno Carbone, leader of the Camorra syndicate, was captured by