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I'm Alex Ritson with your weekly bonus from the Global Story,

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Here's my colleague Katrina Perry.

Since overthrowing Bashar al-Assad, Syria's new rebel leader has promised a bright future.

Stability, tolerance and religious diversity.

Ahmed al-Shara has also vowed to end the criminal drugs empire

linked to the Assad family, a multi-billion dollar operation

that spread a drug called Caphtagon throughout the Middle East.

Syria has become the biggest producer of Capagon on earth, and today Syria is going to be purified by the grace of God.

So what will it take for Syria's new leaders to stamp out an industry so intertwined with the state?

And what does it mean for the future of Syria and Syrians as they adjust to life without Assad?

Well, to talk about all of this, we're joined today from Jerusalem by Amir Nader, a BBC international correspondent who has been covering the drugs trade in the Middle East.

Amir, great to have you with us today.

Thank you. It's great to talk with you.

So let's start with the very basics here. What is Captagon?

Well, it's not really known that much outside of the Middle East, but Captagon is a drug. It's a pill. We've really seen it

flooding the Middle East in the past 10 years or so, places like Saudi Arabia where it's found a

really big lucrative market. It was originally manufactured in Germany in the 1960s as a treatment

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