Maher’s villa near Damascus. — AFP
FROM a fortress high above Damascus, a notorious Syrian military unit once ruled with impunity, draining the city of its wealth.
The elite Fourth Division, led by Maher al-Assad – brother of ousted president Bashar al-Assad – has now been looted, its remnants revealing a vast and illicit economic empire.
Documents left scattered across abandoned bases expose the staggering riches Maher and his cronies amassed while ordinary soldiers struggled to survive.
The trove of papers, seen by AFP, unveils the Fourth Division’s widespread exploitation of Syria’s war-torn economy, spanning far beyond its alleged US$10bil drug trade in captagon, an illegal stimulant widely consumed in the Gulf.
A criminal empire
The Fourth Division’s illicit activities stretched across multiple industries, making it a dominant force in Syria’s shadow economy.
Among its many enterprises, the unit:
> Expropriated homes and farmland
> Seized food, vehicles and electronics for resale
> Looted copper and other metals from bombed-out buildings
> Operated checkpoints, extorting “fees” from civilians
> Ran protection rackets for businesses and fuel shipments, even from rebel-held areas
> Controlled the tobacco and metal industries
The mountain fortress
At the heart of this operation was Maher’s private compound, an underground labyrinth of tunnels carved into the mountains overlooking Damascus.
Some passages were large enough to accommodate trucks, leading to hidden chambers, emergency exits and even a sauna.
A masked guard led AFP through the tunnels, pointing out vaults with iron-clad doors.
In one section, he counted nine separate safes, all pried open by looters in the chaotic hours after the Assad brothers fled on Dec 8.
Maher, unaware of his brother’s escape plan, fled separately via helicopter to the Iraqi border before making his way to Russia.
The underground complex bore signs of abrupt abandonment – shattered safes, empty Rolex and Cartier watch boxes and a machine likely used to bundle stacks of cash.
Hidden wealth
One document found in the Fourth Division’s Security Bureau revealed the unit’s cash reserves in June: US$80mil, eight million euros and 41 billion Syrian pounds. According to records dating back to 2021, such sums were routine.
“This is only a fraction of Maher’s fortune,” said Kheder Khaddour, a scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Centre.
He believes much of Maher’s wealth is stashed abroad, likely in Arab and African nations.
The Fourth Division was “a money-making machine” in a country where the UN estimates more than 90% of people live on less than US$2 a day.
A state within a state
Despite crushing international sanctions, the Fourth Division operated independently, amassing wealth with little interference.
Omar Shaaban, a former Fourth Division colonel who later aligned with the new Syrian authorities, described it as a self-sufficient entity.
“It had all the resources. It had everything,” he said.
Even as the regime banned foreign currencies, Fourth Division officers grew rich, hoarding US dollars in private safes. Beyond their opulent compounds, Syrians suffered economic collapse.
Weeks after the Assad regime fell, desperate scavengers ransacked Maher’s luxurious hilltop mansion in Damascus’ Yaafour district.
One man was heard muttering, “Where’s the gold?” But all that remained were family photos strewn across the floor.
The shadowy butcher
Maher, rarely seen in public, cast a menacing presence.
Dubbed “the butcher”, he was linked to atrocities, including the 2011 Daraa massacre that helped ignite Syria’s civil war and the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.
Yet those close to him described a dual nature.
“He could be charming and generous,” said his sister-in-law Majd al-Jadaan, a vocal opponent of the regime. “But when angered, he was terrifying.”
Lavish lifestyles
Another key figure in the Fourth Division’s corruption was Ghassan Belal, head of its Security Bureau.
Like Maher, Belal indulged in luxury cars and maintained a lavish lifestyle.
Documents from his offices detail extravagant spending – customs fees for a Lexus and a Mercedes shipped to Dubai, Netflix subscriptions paid through intermediaries, and household expenses totalling US$55,000 over 10 days.
Even as Belal lived in excess, his soldiers suffered.
One begged him for financial assistance, receiving a mere 500,000 Syrian pounds – equivalent to just US$33. Another, caught abandoning his post, was found begging on the streets.
The money men
As the regime collapsed, thousands of documents were burned, but many survived.
Records reveal that sanctioned businessmen like Khaled Qaddour, Raif Quwatli and the Katerji brothers funnelled millions into the Fourth Division’s coffers.
Some of these funds allegedly came from illicit oil deals benefiting Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
Checkpoint operations, overseen by Quwatli, generated further revenue through extortion.
Meanwhile, Qaddour – sanctioned for captagon, cigarette and mobile phone smuggling – denied ties to Maher when attempting to lift EU sanctions in 2018.
However, Fourth Division records indicate he paid US$6.5mil into its accounts in 2020 alone.
A mafia in uniform
The Security Bureau was central to the division’s operations, controlling financial transactions and issuing security passes to business associates.
A Lebanese drug lord revealed that the bureau protected shipments in exchange for hefty bribes – one dealer reportedly paid US$2mil for safe passage.
The US Treasury and intelligence agencies identified Belal and the bureau as key players in the captagon trade.
A raid on a villa near the Lebanese border in December uncovered a captagon lab filled with caffeine, ethanol and paracetamol – the key ingredients for the illicit drug.
Locals recalled how the villa was off-limits, with even shepherds barred from the surrounding hills.
A former Fourth Division officer, who requested anonymity, admitted, “We knew we were working for a mafia.”
‘They left people to starve’
The Fourth Division’s greed devastated ordinary Syrians.
Among the abandoned documents, a letter from Adnan Deeb, a cemetery caretaker from Homs, pleaded for the return of his family’s confiscated property.
Their villa, seized a decade ago, was repurposed as a military office, warehouse and possibly a detention site.
Even after being barred from their own home, the family was still taxed for it.
“The Fourth Division’s Bureau was a red line – no one dared challenge it,” said the son of another dispossessed homeowner.
Looted luxury cars and motorcycles filled a storage yard near Damascus, remnants of a regime that enriched itself while leaving its people in ruin.
The fall of the Assad dynasty has exposed the sheer scale of their plunder, but for many Syrians, justice remains a distant hope. — AFP
