Syrian rebels are hunting for one of the most-wanted members of the fallen regime – the sadistic brother of deposed president Bashar Al-Assad dubbed ‘The Enforcer’, who was feared across the war-torn nation for his brutality.
Maher Hafez al-Assad was abandoned by his sibling as the dictator fled the country their family had ruled for decades, being left to fend for himself as Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) fighters closed in on the capital.
The younger Assad brother had clearly been readying himself to make a quick getaway, with a vast network of tunnels found beneath his mansions which rebels said were ‘ready with ventilation, sitting rooms, bedrooms, locks and metal doors’.
He is now presumed to be on the run, with reports that he may have escaped via the tunnels and fled to Iraq by helicopter before heading on to Moscow, where his family has invested millions of dollars in property.
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 used to at the same time as Syria was reduced to poverty by war and corruption.
As their people suffered, the Assads amassed billions during their half century of despotic rule, and now their vast palaces have been ransacked 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 palacial homes, including his mountaintop summer house, uncovering everything from watches, photo albums and Jennifer Lopez DVDs.
Bizarrely, among the discarded possessions found in his office was reported to be Phyto Andro pills, which the packet describes as ‘a powerful, 100 per cent natural, sexual wellness and libido supplement’ which ‘releases the stallion in you’.
Maher Hafez al-Assad, 57, has been 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 are pictured in 1985
A vast tunnel complex has been discovered in a mansion owned by Maher al-Assad
A view of a mansion belonging to Maher al-Assad
Most of the contents of his residences, like those belonging to his brother, were quickly looted by the first people to enter them after the regime’s demise on December 8.
‘Maher is like a big scary ghost,’ said Hassan Eid, 32, who was among those who had stormed one of the military commander’s homes north of Damascus.
‘His name is like a horror story. He was like a big vampire — except he sucked dollars,’ he told The Times as he kicked around empty Omega watch boxes.
Maher flew a helicopter to Iraq and then to Russia, a source told Reuters. Iraq has denied reports that he escaped to Baghdad.
France issued an arrest warrant for Maher last year for ‘complicity in crimes against humanity and complicity in war crimes‘ for his alleged involvement in chemical weapons attacks.
Maher, along with his brother and two other high-ranking officials, are wanted for over the 2013 Ghouta chemical attack – in which rockets containing Sarin gas were used on civilians in opposition-controlled suburbs near Damascus.
One of Assad’s closest lieutenants, his younger brother led the bloody crackdown on protesters in 2011 and is believed to have been responsible for the murder of more than 1,000 civilians in the first gas attack of the war.
He had been considered the most cutthroat within the Assad family, a ‘tough guy’ compared to his bookish brother Bashar, but too hot-tempered and impetuous to takeover from his father.
Syrians have descended on the Assads’ residences in the days since the fall of the regime
An aerial view of a villa in al-Dimas, identified as a drug production hub linked to Maher al-Assad
Since the collapse of the decades-long Baath regime on December 8, drug manufacturing centers across Syria have been steadily uncovered
Instead, just as his uncle did for his father, Maher took on the role of ‘enforcer’, working to keep his older brother in power by any means necessary.
He ran the regime’s lucrative drugs empire – worth a staggering £1.9 billion – and headed up the Army’s elite 4th Armoured Division and Republican Guard, which oversaw the defence of the Damascus .
He had been planning to take a final stand in the city of Homs, briefing his brother on the plans on the morning of December 7, The Times reports.
He could not reach him that afternoon, and was able to track him down to the al-Mazzeh military airport, where he found his brother ready to board a plane to the Russian-controlled base of Hmeimim, from where he would fly to Moscow.
According to unverified accounts, hotheaded Maher was last seen arguing with his brother as he prepared to board the flight.
A Syrian rebel fighter shows captagon pills hidden in a fake fruit at a factory for manufacturing in the city of Douma, east of the capital Damascus, Syria, 14 December
As his forces realised that they had been abandoned by the president, who allegedly urged his army to hold just hours before he fled, the last line of defence collapsed, and with it, the Ba’athist regime.
In the days since the regime’s collapse, raids on Assad-owned residences and facilities have revealed the family’s hoarded wealth.
Rebels uncovered a vast haul of an addictive amphetamine-like stimulant called Captagon – dubbed the ‘poor man’s cocaine’ – late last week.
The pills were found concealed inside electrical components due for export in a raid on a warehouse at 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 in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on December 2, 2024
In a cavernous garage beneath the warehouse and loading bays, thousands of dusty beige captagon pills were packed into the copper coils of brand new household voltage stabilisers.
‘We found a large number of devices that were stuffed with packages of captagon pills meant to be smuggled out of the country. It’s a huge quantity. It’s impossible to tell,’ black-masked fighter Abu Malek al-Shami said.
Above, in the warehouse, crates of cardboard boxes stood ready to allow the traffickers to disguise their cargo as pallet-loads of standard goods, alongside sacks and sacks of caustic soda.
An HTS fighter said that they had ‘destroyed and burned’ a huge quantity of the drug found on the grounds of the Mazzeh air base, and seen by journalists smouldering in a large bonfire.
The revenue from selling Captagon helped to prop up Assad’s government throughout Syria’s 13 years of civil war, to the point that Syria has been described as a ‘narco-state’
The US state department estimates that the Assad family are worth $2billion, with their wealth concealed in numerous accounts, shell companies, offshore tax havens and real estate portfolios.
Pictures of the Assads’ abandoned homes have surfaced after a dramatic week which has seen opposition fighters take Damascus, sealing the stunning fall of the Syrian dictator’s brutal regime.
Following the capture of Damascus, Hayyet Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist group leading the rebel factions, said on Telegram that it was the end of a dark era.
Rebels reached the Syrian capital on December 8 for the first time since the region was recaptured by government troops in 2018, and immediately headed to Assad’s official and family residences, where looting was already taking place.
Footage emerged showing empty and smoke-blackened rooms around the Tishreen presidential palace, and yesterday rebel fighters sought revenge on the late president Hafez Al-Assad by setting fire to his grave.
Hafez’s son and wider family have now left their homeland in disgrace and will begin a new life in exile, most likely without the luxuries they have become used to.
