Airstrikes kill well-known Syrian drug kingpin

By BASSEM MROUE and KAREEM CHEHAYEB
Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — An opposition war monitor and a pro-government radio station are reporting that airstrikes over southern Syria have killed one of the country’s most well-known drug dealers. The strikes early Monday come a day after Arab governments reinstated Syria to the Arab League, after the country’s membership had been suspended for a dozen years. Western governments estimate that the sale of the amphetamine Captagon has generated billions of dollars in revenue for Syrian President Bashar Assad, his Syrian associates and allies. The first strike hit a home in the Syrian village of Shuab near the Jordanian border killing Merhi al-Ramthan, his wife and six children. That’s according to the Britain-based opposition war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.