Recycled metal portrayed as former dictator’s fiefdom

The notion that recycling can be profitable has been reinforced by an early January news report by Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based newspaper The National, which looks at the role of Syria’s former ruling family in that nation’s scrap metal trade.

The multiparagraph article by the UAE news organization and writer Lizzie Porter quotes a worker and another resident in Aleppo, Syria, and a Turkish think tank employee as sources. Combined, they portray the roles of a brother of former dictator Bashar Al Assad and another deposed politician in controlling Aleppo’s scrap flows.

According to the worker and the Aleppo resident, soldiers from the Syrian Army’s 4^th Division reportedly led by the former dictator’s brother Maher Al Assad were embedded into scrap generating, processing and melting sites throughout Aleppo—a war-torn city with an unfortunate amount of demolition scrap.

A melt shop worker quoted in the UAE report says the plant’s owner was forced to buy feedstock from scrap dealers “affiliated” with the 4^th Division. “In every metal plant, there was a room for about three to four members of the 4th Division,” the worker, known as Ammar throughout the article, says.

Also identified as involved in the monopoly scheme is Mohammed Hamsho, a former member of the Syrian parliament who was placed on an American and British sanctions list in late 2023.

The same worker estimates the 4th Division’s monopoly helped it make billions of Syrian pounds on a monthly basis. (The Syrian pound is worth 0.00008 United States cents as of early January.)

Another resident quoted by The National says the army unit relied on a “small mafia” of 20 or 30 collectors who collected metal from abandoned or occupied buildings and forced melt shops to buy it even if it was of questionable quality. 

The Turkish think tank staff member, Ayman Al Dassouki of the Omran Centre for Strategic Studies, says the cartel led by the former dictator’s brother “monopolized the trade of scrap metal, iron and copper across Syria, including Aleppo, through a network of local intermediaries and warlord businessmen.”

Al Dassouki tells The National he recommends that Syria’s new government re-establishing the Syrian Metals and Steel Council to help reintroduce operating standards for recycling materials.