Syrian rebels are hunting one of the fallen regime’s most wanted members: the sadistic brother of deposed President Bashar Al-Assad, known as ‘The Enforcer’, who was feared in the war-torn country for his brutality.
Maher Hafez al-Assad was abandoned by his sibling when the dictator fled the country where their family had ruled for decades. He was left to fend for himself as fighters from Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) approached the capital.
The younger Assad brother had clearly prepared for a quick escape, with an extensive network of tunnels under his mansions that the rebels said were safe. ‘done with ventilation, sitting rooms, bedrooms, locks and metal doors’.
He is now believed to be on the run, with reports that he may have escaped through the tunnels and fled to Iraq by helicopter before heading to Moscow, where his family has invested millions of dollars in real estate.
The 57-year-old’s new life as a fugitive will be a far cry from the life of luxury he and his wife Manal had become accustomed to during a time when Syria was reduced to poverty by war and corruption.
While their people suffered, the Assads amassed billions during their half-century of despotic rule, and now their vast palaces have been looted as Syrians seek to reclaim what they see as rightfully theirs.
Rebels and civilians seeking retribution for the suffering Maher contributed to have now raided his palatial homes, including his mountaintop summer home, uncovering everything from Jennifer Lopez’s watches, photo albums and DVDs.
Curiously, among the discarded belongings found in his office were Phyto Andro pills, which are described in the package as “a powerful, 100 percent natural supplement for sexual wellness and libido” that “releases the stallion within you.”
Maher Hafez al-Assad, 57, is dubbed ‘The Enforcer’ for his brutal role as a military commander in the regime
Maher (left) was the youngest son of former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad. The family is pictured in 1985
A huge tunnel complex has been discovered in a mansion owned by Maher al-Assad
A view of a country house belonging to Maher al-Assad
Most of the contents of his homes, like those of his brother, were quickly looted by the first people who entered them after the fall of the regime on December 8.
“Maher is like a big scary ghost,” said Hassan Eid, 32, who was among those who stormed one of the military commander’s homes north of Damascus.
‘His name is like a horror story. He was like a big vampire, only he sucked in dollars,” he told The Times as he kicked around empty Omega watch boxes.
Maher flew by helicopter to Iraq and then to Russia, a source told Reuters. Iraq has denied reports that he escaped to Baghdad.
France last year issued an arrest warrant for Maher for “complicity in crimes against humanity and complicity in war crimes” over his alleged involvement in chemical weapons attacks.
Maher is wanted along with his brother and two other senior officials over the 2013 chemical attack in Ghouta, in which Sarin gas-laden rockets were used on civilians in opposition-controlled suburbs near Damascus.
His younger brother, one of Assad’s closest lieutenants, led the bloody crackdown on protesters in 2011 and is believed to have been responsible for the killing of more than a thousand civilians in the first gas attack of the war.
He was considered the most murderous in the Assad family, a “tough guy” compared to his studious brother Bashar, but too short-tempered and impetuous to take over his father’s power.
Since the fall of the regime, Syrians have invaded the Assads’ homes
An aerial view of a villa in al-Dimas, identified as a drug production center linked to Maher al-Assad
Since the collapse of the decades-long Baathist regime on December 8, drug production centers have continued to be exposed across Syria
Instead, just as his uncle did for his father, Maher took on the role of “enforcer” and tried to keep his older brother in power by any means necessary.
He ran the regime’s lucrative drugs empire – worth as much as £1.9 billion – and led the elite 4th Armored Division and the Republican Guard, which oversaw the defense of Damascus.
He planned to make a final stand in the city of Homs and inform his brother of the plans on the morning of December 7, The Times reported.
Unable to reach him that afternoon, he tracked him down to al-Mazzeh military airport, where he found his brother ready to board a plane to the Russian-controlled Hmeimim base, from where he would fly to Moscow.
According to unverified reports, the hot-headed Maher was last seen arguing with his brother as he prepared to board the flight.
A Syrian rebel fighter shows captagon pills hidden in counterfeit fruit at a production factory in the city of Douma, east of the capital Damascus, Syria, December 14
When his troops realized they had been abandoned by the president, who had reportedly urged his army to hold out just hours before he fled, the last line of defense collapsed, and with it the Ba’athist regime.
In the days following the regime’s collapse, raids on Assad’s homes and facilities have exposed the family’s hoarded wealth.
Rebels late last week discovered a huge quantity of an addictive amphetamine-like stimulant called Captagon, also known as the ‘poor man’s cocaine’.
The pills were found hidden in electrical components intended for export during a raid on a warehouse in a quarry on the outskirts of Damascus.
An anti-regime fighter tears off a poster depicting Syrian President Bachar al-Assad (L) and his brother Maher at the airport of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on December 2, 2024
In a cavernous garage beneath the warehouse and loading docks, thousands of dusty beige Captagon pills were packed into the copper coils of brand new household voltage stabilizers.
“We found a large number of devices filled with packets of Captagon pills intended to be smuggled out of the country. It’s a huge amount. That is impossible to say,” said black-masked fighter Abu Malek al-Shami.
Upstairs, in the warehouse, crates of cardboard boxes were ready so that the merchants could disguise their cargo as pallet loads of standard goods, alongside bags and bags of caustic soda.
An HTS fighter said they had “destroyed and burned” a huge quantity of the drug found on the grounds of Mazzeh air base, which journalists saw smoldering in a large bonfire.
Revenue from sales of Captagon helped prop up Assad’s government throughout Syria’s 13-year civil war, to the point that Syria has been described as a “narco-state.”
The US State Department estimates that the Assad family is worth $2 billion, with their wealth hidden in countless accounts, shell companies, offshore tax havens and real estate portfolios.
Photos of the Assads’ abandoned homes have emerged after a dramatic week in which opposition fighters took Damascus, sealing the stunning fall of the Syrian dictator’s brutal regime.
After capturing Damascus, Hayyet Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist group leading the rebel factions, said on Telegram that this was the end of a dark era.
Rebels reached the Syrian capital on December 8 for the first time since the region was retaken by government forces in 2018, and immediately headed for Assad’s official and family homes, where looting was already taking place.
Images emerged of empty and smoke-blackened rooms around Tishreen’s presidential palace, and yesterday rebel fighters sought revenge on late President Hafez Al-Assad by setting fire to his grave.
Hafez’s son and his extended family have now left their homeland in disgrace and will begin a new life in exile, most likely without the luxuries they have become accustomed to.