Drugs in the Gulf States, 2026: the captagon-to-shabu shift
The Middle East stimulant market transformed after the Assad regime fell in December 2024. This tracker compiles what is publicly documented: seizure volumes, the meth surge, where production moved, and what each Gulf state faces. Every figure is sourced and dated. Free to cite; please link back.
What happened: the 2024–2026 shift
For a decade, the Levant’s stimulant of choice was captagon — the amphetamine-family pill industrialized in Syria under the Assad regime, with Saudi Arabia as its biggest market. When the regime fell in December 2024, that industrial base scattered rather than vanished. UNODC counts a minimum of 177 million tablets intercepted across the Arab region in the twelve months to December 2025 — Syria alone reported seizing over 500 million, Lebanon 78 million. The EU Drugs Agency’s 2026 strategic assessment (with EU-ACT) documents production re-forming in Lebanon, Iraq, Sudan, Yemen, Türkiye, Egypt and Kuwait, with European manufacturers (Netherlands, Germany) entering the supply chain.
The second-order effect matters more for users: captagon tablet prices roughly doubled, and UNODC’s World Drug Report 2026 assesses that displaced users shifted to methamphetamine — “shabu” — which is now among the three most-used drugs in Saudi Arabia alongside cannabis and captagon. Iran intercepted 3,663 kg of meth bound for Europe and the Persian Gulf in the first quarter of 2026 alone. The Gulf states — long treated as destinations — are now production and transit nodes in their own right.
Country-by-country picture
| Country | Drug situation 2026 | Legal exposure | Role in the market |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saudi Arabia | Meth now among the 3 most-used drugs (with cannabis & captagon) | World's most active executioner for drug offences — record 239 executions by Aug 2025; death penalty for trafficking | Primary captagon destination (~two-thirds of regional seizures) and the region's largest ATS consumer market |
| UAE | Transit hub: record meth seizures at ports/airports; a hidden but real consumer market | Hisn 80044 helpline gives legal exemption for voluntary treatment; trafficking = severe prison terms | One of the most-cited transit countries for meth into Saudi Arabia — Al Baha border crossing, vehicle-part concealment |
| Kuwait | 4 meth labs identified 2020–2024, incl. a six-brothers syndicate making meth AND trafficking captagon/heroin/hashish (Mar 2023) | Expanded capital punishment for drug offences (Dec 2025); trace amounts in the body can count as 'possession' | Production node, not just destination — 3 labs seized in 2024 alone |
| Qatar | Small consumer market; Naufar Center treats addiction as a disease (Emiri decree) | Severe prison terms for trafficking; treatment-first approach for users | Monitored as a transit corridor between Iran and the wider Gulf |
| Bahrain | Stimulant pills circulate via the Oman corridor | Harsh trafficking sentences; drug offences tried under strict anti-narcotics law | Linked to the Omani smuggling route into Saudi Arabia and Yemen |
| Oman | Corridor country: smuggling route to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Yemen | Expanded capital punishment framework (Sept 2026) | Long coastline makes it a maritime transit point for Gulf-bound meth |
The bigger regional picture
- Cocaine is arriving too: Gulf ports (Jebel Ali, Jeddah) appear repeatedly in European and Latin American cocaine corridor reporting — the region’s cocaine market is small but growing fast off the same logistics.
- Pregabalin on illicit markets: UNODC has flagged pregabalin’s growing presence in Middle East illicit drug markets — a prescription gabapentinoid with its own dependence and withdrawal risks. Profile: pregabalin.
- Khat remains regional baseline: the oldest stimulant economy in the region (Yemen, Somalia, Ethiopia corridor) — profile: khat.
- Penalty escalation: Kuwait expanded capital punishment for drug offences in December 2025 and Oman in September 2026 — part of a region-wide hardening even as the UAE builds treatment-first pathways (Hisn 80044).
Sources
- UNODC — World Drug Report 2026 (press release & highlights; methamphetamine assessment for Saudi Arabia)
- UNODC — synthetic drug market evolution in the Near and Middle East (177M+ tablets, Dec 2024–Dec 2025)
- UN News — Iran methamphetamine interceptions, August 2026
- EUDA / EU-ACT — strategic assessment: captagon & methamphetamine 2026 (production fragmentation, Kuwait labs)
- UNODC — World Drug Report regional annexes (khat, pregabalin, cocaine corridors)
- Gulf News / The National / Khaleej Times — UAE Hisn & Mukafih 80044 service (July 2026); naufar.com — Qatar Naufar Center contact
Related: Meth cities: Middle East · Cocaine cities: Middle East · Topic: from captagon to shabu · Captagon profile · Methamphetamine profile · Sentencing by region · Hotlines by region