Piles of documents seen by AFP expose a vast economic empire that Maher Assad and his network of profiteers built by pillaging a country already impoverished by nearly 14 years of civil war.
Western governments long accused him and his entourage of turning Syria into a narco state, flooding the Middle East with captagon, an illegal stimulant used both as a party drug in the Gulf and to push migrant workers through punishingly long days in the gruelling heat. But at its heart, down a steep flight of stairs, lay a series of vaults with iron-clad doors. The guard said he had counted nine vaults behind one sealed-off room.
He then made his way to Russia, they said, apparently via Iran. The chaos of their fall is apparent in the underground complex. Safes and empty Rolex and Cartier watch boxes still lie scattered about, though it is not known if the vaults were emptied before the looters arrived. There was never any shortage of bills to wrap. That was a perfectly normal cash float, according to papers going back to Western sanctions to squeeze the Assads and their cronies did little to impede Maher and his men.
But all that was left were old photographs of Maher, his wife and their three children strewn on the floor.
But while his portrait was hung in all their bases, he was seldom seen in public. Yet Maher could be generous and good company, according to his sister-in-law Majd Al-Jadaan, a longtime opponent of the regime.
