exporting things like crude oil, olive oil, spices and fruits, rugs and other textiles but today it ought to perhaps be best known for exporting amphetamines, illegal uppers. a blockbuster report by the new york times says syria has become nothing less than a narco state, making billions of dollars off those drugs, more money than from its legal exports. ben hubbard is one of the reporters who chased this story down. welcome, ben. explain to us what you describe as syria at the end of ten years of civil war that sounds like a kind of collapsed gangster state. would that be a fair characterization? yeah, i think so. after ten years of war, we ve seen the state as a central entity completely disintegrate and even though the government as we know it now controls the territory, inside of the territory it s a shattered place
syria was once known for sporting things like crude oil, olive oil, spices and fruits, rugs and other textiles but today it ought to perhaps be best known for exporting amphetamines, illegal uppers. a blockbuster report by the new york times says syria has become nothing less than a narco state, making billions of dollars off those drugs, more money than from its legal exports. ben hubbard is one of the reporters who chased this story down. welcome, ben. explain to us what you describe as syria at the end of ten years of civil war that sounds like a kind of collapsed gangster state. would that be a fair