The President's Daily Brief - December 19th, 2024: Syria’s Drug Empire Collapses & ISIS Prison Crisis Looms

Episode Date: December 19, 2024

In this episode of The President’s Daily Brief: Fallout from Assad’s collapse in Syria has reportedly upended the Middle East’s most profitable drug empire, revealing the massive trade that fueled war and social crises across the region. U.S. officials sound the alarm over a ticking time bomb in Syria: thousands of ISIS fighters still held in makeshift prisons, a security nightmare waiting to unfold. A violent gang crackdown in Colorado—police bust a kidnapping and torture plot at an apartment complex overrun by Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua syndicate. And in today’s Back of the Brief: Ukraine unveils a cutting-edge laser weapon, reportedly based on UK prototypes, that could soon be targeting Russian jets. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief  Patriot Gold: Call 1-888-870-5457 for a free investor guide.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Go to PatriotGoldgroup.com or call 1-88-621-3856 for a free investor guide. It's Thursday, 19 December. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. And look at that. I'm back off the road after a few weeks in Europe and the Middle East. Here I am back in the compound, bringing you the PDB in full vista vision and surround sound stereo. So let's get briefed. We'll start the show with more fallout from the Assad regime's collapse in Syria, which has reported, upended the Middle East's most profitable drug empire, pulling back the curtain on a massive trade that fueled war and social crises across the region. Later in the show, U.S. officials sound the alarm over what they're referring to as a ticking time bomb in Syria. Thousands of ISIS fighters, remember them, still held in makeshift prisons, a security nightmare waiting to unfold. Plus, a violent gang crackdown in Colorado in the United States. States, police break up a kidnapping ring at an apartment complex overrun by Venezuela's

Trent Aragua or TDA syndicate. And in today's back of the brief, Ukraine unveils a cutting-edge laser beam weapon, reportedly based on UK prototypes that could soon be targeting Russian jets. And yes, I did say laser beam. Apologies to Austin Powers fans. But first, today's BDB spotlight. The downfall of Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad has exposed a sprawling, multi-million dollar drug smuggling network that helped prop up his regime and fuel addiction and unrest, of course, across the Middle East. Since Assad's overthrow on December 8th at the hands of Islamist rebels, dozens of industrial scale manufacturing and trafficking facilities producing an amphetamine-based stimulant have been uncovered. All parts of a

side hustle orchestrated by the Assad regime that pulled in an estimated $2.5 billion annually. The massive financial windfalls helped Assad offset the impact of crippling international sanctions during the height of the Syrian Civil War, and of course enrich regional allies like Hezbollah, who helped facilitate the trade. That's according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. The drug in question is called Capdog. It's a methamphetamine-like. substance that has soared in use throughout the region since 2018, particularly in the Arab Gulf States. Over the years, smugglers have trafficked hundreds of millions of these pills, which are now unfortunately wildly popular with civilians across the socioeconomic spectrum. They're used by everyone

from taxi drivers, students logging late hours, workers trying to stay alert, and militia fighters, looking for a bit of courage on the battlefields. Arab elites are also said to enjoy partaking in Capagon recreationally, with the most popular markets for the drug, said to be in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The drug's regional popularity fuel tensions between Syria and its neighbors, particularly with Jordan, which has spent the last two years conducting targeted airstrikes inside Syria in an attempt to stymie the activity of the traffickers. But with the ousting of Assad, the sprawling narcotics, Empire has started to unravel. Rebel fighters began seizing facilities being used to manufacture

Capdigan in the days after Assad fled for Russia, putting some to the torch. The rebels uncovered these drug factories, hidden inside government military bases and other sites affiliated with senior officials of the deposed regime. The Mase Air Base in Damascus was apparently a central hub for the operation, as was a car trading company in the Port City. of Latakia and a potato chip factory in the suburbs of Damascus, which was linked to Assad's brother. The rebels invited journalists to tour some of the facilities in recent days where they reported seeing thousands of Captagon pills stuffed inside a random assortment of items for shipment like fake fruit, ceramic mosaics, and electrical equipment. While the Captagon trade was

hardly a secret, the facilities uncovered by Rebel forces, offer the first hard evidence that the Assad regime was the primary force behind the drug-smuggling network. For more than a decade now, most of the global supply of Capdagon has been produced in Syria, particularly after Assad began industrializing production sometime in 2018. An expert on the Capitagon trade told the Wall Street Journal, quote, you can imagine the manpower, the resources that were required. It penetrated so many elements of the regime, its political apparatus, patronage networks the security apparatus, end quote.

The annual global Capdagon trade pulled in an estimated $10 billion per year, with the Assad regime directly netting roughly $2.5 billion. Assad's brother, who commanded the Syrian military's elite fourth armored division, oversaw production and distribution reporting directly back to the former president. The Syrian rebels, led by the militant group HTS, have pointed to the narcotics operation as a prime example of the Assad regime's moral and financial corruption. Rebel leader Abu Muhammad al-Jolani vowed to supporters on Friday to eliminate any last vestiges of the trade from the country,

saying, quote, today Syria is being cleansed. So, you ask yourself, what happens to Syria's narcotics empire now that Assad is gone? Well, unfortunately, it's a bit like whack-a-mole. While a short-term supply reduction in the trade is expected. Analysts say that due to widespread demand throughout the Middle East, manufacturing will likely just shift to other countries as other criminal elements look to fill the void. All right, coming up next, U.S. officials born of a ticking time bomb in Syria's

makeshift ISIS prisons, and police crack down on a brutal ganglinked kidnapping and torture plot in Colorado. I'll have those stories when we come back. Excema is unpredictable, but you can flare less with ebbglis, a once-monthly treatment for moderate to severe eczema. After an initial four-month or longer dosing phase, about four in 10 people taking ebbglis, achieved itch relief and clear or almost clear skin at 16 weeks, and most of those people maintain skin that's still more clear at one year with monthly dosing. Emglysses, Lebrichizumab, LBKZ, a 250 milligram per 2-millimeter injection is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe

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The can be a hotel's got it all. A rooftop bar, have a ball. Bring a date, your squad, or even your mom. Book direct at choiceotails.com. Welcome back to the PDB. We're going to stay in Syria, where American officials are sounding alarm bells over a looming crisis, and that would be a potential mass jailbreak of ISIS fighters. Now, as we've reported here on the PDB, thousands of ISIS fighters and their families remain detained in makeshift prisons overseen by the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF. That's a U.S.-backed coalition primarily led by Kurdish groups.

These Kurdish-led forces have led to fight against ISIS, but their position is increasingly under threat. Originally intended as temporary holding facilities, the prisons now hold detainees in, well, essentially legal limbo, as home countries from Iraq and Syria and Europe and North America refuse to take them back, and frankly, who can blame them? The situation has obviously become more complex following the collapse of the Assad regime,

and officials now warn that an ISIS resurgence could have hinge on whether the U.S. and its allies can keep these prisoners contained. The SDF has been one of America's most reliable partners in the fight against ISIS, but Turkey, a NATO ally, views the Kurdish-led SDF as a threat and has launched repeated attacks on them through Turkish-backed militias. These strikes have forced the SDF to divert attention away from guarding prisons to defending their territory. A fragile U.S. brokered ceasefire near the northern city of Monbeche is providing a glimmer of hope, though not much. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken recently traveled to Ankara to discuss extending that agreement with Kurdish leaders signaling their willingness to maintain the

talks and establish a demilitarized zone under U.S. supervision. Still, U.S. officials are rightly so deeply concerned. One senior counterterrorism official described the situation as a ticking time bomb, warning that if Turkey's proxy forces continue their attacks, well, a major jailbreak could be imminent. Meanwhile, critics in Washington are urging the U.S. to do more to shield the SDF from Turkish aggression, arguing that such attacks ultimately benefit ISIS. Adding to the tension, U.S. forces conducted dozens of airstrikes last week against ISIS leaders, signaling a commitment to preventing the group's resurgence. Central Command Chief General Air Force. Karilla visited U.S. troops and SDF fighters in Syria before traveling to Baghdad for high-level

discussions. He issued a firm warning that the U.S. will hold any organization accountable if they support ISIS. As it stands, around 900 American troops remain in Syria to train and support the SDF. There are no plans to increase that number or shift their mission, but with a new U.S. administration on the horizon, the long-term strategy in Syria is anything but certain. All right. Shifting to the U.S., police in Aurora, Colorado, arrested 14 suspects tied to a brutal kidnapping and assault linked to the notorious Trondragua, or TDA, Venezuelan prison gang that infiltrated the city and captured national headlines. The gang members, a mix of men and women, ripped a migrant couple from their home Monday night,

taking them to a separate apartment where they endured hours of torture. Aurora Police revealed the victims were restrained, pistol-wipped, beaten, and in one case, stabbed, though injuries were reportedly not life-threatening. The suspects also looted the couple's residence. In a desperate bid for freedom, the victims promised not to contact authorities, only to dial 911 as soon as they escaped early Tuesday morning. Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain confirmed TDA's possible involvement labeling the scene as, quote, without a question, a gang incident.

The police chief acknowledged the difficulty in identifying suspected TDA members due to a limited intelligence sharing between the U.S. government and Venezuelan authorities. Speaking at a press conference Tuesday, Chamberlain stated, quote, we're not going to rest until every individual who mistreated another human being is in custody, end quote. Homeland Security has also joined the investigation. Now, the arrests have refocused the national spotlight onto a complex, an apartment complex, called The Edge at Lowry, and that has been notorious for violent crime. You may remember earlier this year the viral video of surveillance footage, capturing armed

gang members breaking into an apartment, fueling outrage among residents, state and federal lawmakers, and that became a heated topic in the presidential debates. A recent spree of shootings and break-ins has forced to. several tenants to flee, including a couple whose car was riddled with bullets during a shootout. The couple told local news outlet KDVR, quote, It's been a nightmare, describing how they fortified their door with five locks, before relocating with assistance from city council member Danielle Jurinsky. Now, Jurenski has long sounded the alarm about TDA's growing influence in Aurora,

accusing state and federal leaders of negligence, telling the New York Post, quote, it will come as no shock to me when they are confirmed TDA gang members. This is what I've been saying for months now, end quote. The city council member added that Democrat Colorado Governor Jared Polis previously dismissed her warnings regarding TDA's infiltration as, quote, imagination. Additionally, Chief Chamberlain didn't hold back criticism of the current Biden administration blaming immigration policies for creating an environment ripe for criminal exploitation, stating, quote, we have individuals who come to this country, get dropped off into a community,

and have absolutely no infrastructure, no support, and no guidance from the federal government, end quote. Well, he would not be wrong in that assessment. Aurora, like many other cities, continues to struggle with the influx of migrants, many of whom arrive from Denver. Ooh, look at that. A sanctuary city that received a minimum of 40,000 migrants over the past two years. Meanwhile, the edge at Lowry is now under police lockdown. as authorities intensify efforts to detain additional suspects.

Remaining residents grapple with the uneasy reality of living in a city increasingly affected by gang violence and systematic failures, with little apparent relief in sight. Okay. Coming up in the back of the brief, Ukraine unveils a laser weapon inspired by UK prototypes with claims that it's ready to take down Russian fighter jets. I'll be right back. In today's back of the brief, Ukraine revealed its development of a high-powered laser weapon called Trident. One Ukrainian commander claims the cutting-edge technology is ready to shoot down Russian jets

and could revolutionize their air defense capabilities. Revealed at a defense industry conference by the commander of Ukraine's unmanned systems forces, Trident was described as fully operational and capable of neutralizing targets at distances exceeding one mile. The commander further stated that efforts to improve its capabilities are underway. Notably, this marks Ukraine's first public acknowledgement of the system, positioning it as only the fifth nation to field such cutting-edge laser capabilities. So, you ask yourself, how does his high-power laser weapon work? It's a good question. Trident employs a concentrated beam of light to destroy its targets, an approach that could prove critical, encountering Russian fighter jets and hypersonic missiles,

which can travel at nearly 4,000 miles per hour and evade conventional defenses. According to the Telegraph, Ukraine's Trident system is reportedly modeled on the UK's Dragonfire prototype following shared designs earlier this year. The British system, known for its precision, capable of hitting a coin from half a mile away, costs just $12 per share. shot. Ukraine's adoption of this technology could also address Russia's frequent drone barrages with essentially a cost-effective and highly accurate solution. The then-U.K. Defense Secretary, Grant Shaps, hinted in April that Dragonfire's technology could be tailored to meet Keeves' needs, calling its potential battlefield impact as possessing, quote, huge ramifications. Shaps emphasized

that the system didn't need to be, quote, 100 percent perfect for Ukrainians to begin using it. For the UK, Dragonfire was initially expected to enter service in 23, but recent developments have accelerated its deployment to as early as 2027 for the Royal Navy. Ukraine's Triton, however, appears battle-ready now, and that's a development that could alter the dynamics of air defense in its nearly three-year-long war with Russia. The system reflects Kiev and the West's increasing focus on technological innovation to bolster its military capabilities in an effort to counter Russia's aggression. And that, my friends, is the President's Daily Brief for Thursday, 19 December. Look, if you have any questions or comments, and I hope you do, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com.

And as you've likely read in the newspaper's gossip section, to listen to the show ad-free, it's very simple. Become a premium member of the President's Daily Brief by visiting PDB Premium.com. See? Told you it was simple. I'm Mike Baker. I'll be back later today with the PDB afternoon bulletin. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool.