118THCONGRESS
2
DSESSION H. R. 4681
AN ACT
To provide for the imposition of sanctions with respect to
illicit captagon trafficking.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 2
•HR 4681 EH
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Illicit Captagon Traf-2
ficking Suppression Act of 2023’’. 3
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 4
Congress finds the following: 5
(1) Industrial scale production of the amphet-6
amine-type stimulant also known as captagon, and 7
the illicit production of precursor chemicals, in terri-8
tories held by the regime of President Bashar al 9
Assad in Syria are becoming more sophisticated and 10
pose a severe challenge to regional and international 11
security. 12
(2) Elements of the Government of Syria are 13
key drivers of illicit trafficking in captagon, with 14
ministerial-level complicity in production and smug-15
gling, using other armed groups such as Hizballah 16
for technical and logistical support in captagon pro-17
duction and trafficking. 18
(3) As affiliates of the Government of Syria and 19
other actors seek to export captagon, they under-20
mine regional security by empowering a broad range 21
of criminal networks, militant groups, mafia syn-22
dicates, and autocratic governments. 23
SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 24
It is the policy of the United States to target individ-25
uals, entities, and networks associated with the Govern-26 3
•HR 4681 EH
ment of Syria to dismantle and degrade the transnational 1
criminal organizations, including narcotics trafficking net-2
works, associated with the regime of President Bashar al 3
Assad in Syria and Hizballah. 4
SEC. 4. IMPOSITION OF SANCTIONS WITH RESPECT TO IL-5
LICIT CAPTAGON TRAFFICKING. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The sanctions described in sub-7
section (b) shall be imposed with respect to any foreign 8
person the President determines, on or after the date of 9
enactment of this Act— 10
(1) engages in, or attempts to engage in, activi-11
ties or transactions that have materially contributed 12
to, or pose a significant risk of materially contrib-13
uting to, the illicit production and international il-14
licit proliferation of captagon; or 15
(2) knowingly receives any property or interest 16
in property that the foreign person knows— 17
(A) constitutes or is derived from proceeds 18
of activities or transactions that have materially 19
contributed to, or pose a significant risk of ma-20
terially contributing to, the illicit production 21
and international illicit proliferation of 22
captagon; or 23
(B) was used or intended to be used to 24
commit or to facilitate activities or transactions 25 4
•HR 4681 EH
that have materially contributed to, or pose a 1
significant risk of materially contributing to, 2
the illicit production and international illicit 3
proliferation of captagon. 4
(b) S
ANCTIONSDESCRIBED.—The sanctions de-5
scribed in this subsection are the following: 6
(1) B
LOCKING OF PROPERTY .—The President 7
shall exercise all authorities granted under the Inter-8
national Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 9
U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) to the extent necessary to block 10
and prohibit all transactions in property and inter-11
ests in property of the foreign person if such prop-12
erty and interests in property are in the United 13
States, come within the United States, or come with-14
in the possession or control of a United States per-15
son. 16
(2) I
NELIGIBILITY FOR VISAS, ADMISSION, OR 17
PAROLE.— 18
(A) V
ISAS, ADMISSION, OR PAROLE.—An 19
alien described in subsection (a) shall be— 20
(i) inadmissible to the United States; 21
(ii) ineligible to receive a visa or other 22
documentation to enter the United States; 23
and 24 5
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(iii) otherwise ineligible to be admitted 1
or paroled into the United States or to re-2
ceive any other benefit under the Immigra-3
tion and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et 4
seq.). 5
(B) C
URRENT VISAS REVOKED .— 6
(i) I
N GENERAL.—The visa or other 7
entry documentation of any alien described 8
in subsection (a) is subject to revocation 9
regardless of the issue date of the visa or 10
other entry documentation. 11
(ii) I
MMEDIATE EFFECT .—A revoca-12
tion under clause (i) shall, in accordance 13
with section 221(i) of the Immigration and 14
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1201(i))— 15
(I) take effect immediately; and 16
(II) cancel any other valid visa or 17
entry documentation that is in the 18
possession of the alien. 19
(c) P
ENALTIES.—Any person that violates, or at-20
tempts to violate, subsection (b) or any regulation, license, 21
or order issued pursuant to that subsection, shall be sub-22
ject to the penalties set forth in subsections (b) and (c) 23
of section 206 of the International Emergency Economic 24
Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1705) to the same extent as a per-25 6
•HR 4681 EH
son that commits an unlawful act described in subsection 1
(a) of that section. 2
(d) W
AIVER.— 3
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The President may waive 4
the application of sanctions under this section with 5
respect to a foreign person only if, not later than 15 6
days prior to the date on which the waiver is to take 7
effect, the President submits to the appropriate con-8
gressional committees a written determination and 9
justification that the waiver is important to the na-10
tional security interests of the United States. 11
(2) B
RIEFING.—Not later than 60 days after 12
the issuance of a waiver under paragraph (1), and 13
every 180 days thereafter while the waiver remains 14
in effect, the President shall brief the appropriate 15
congressional committees on the reasons for the 16
waiver. 17
(e) H
UMANITARIANWAIVER.— 18
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The President may waive, 19
for renewable periods not to exceed 2 years, the ap-20
plication of sanctions with respect to a nongovern-21
mental organization providing humanitarian assist-22
ance if the President certifies to the appropriate 23
congressional committees that such a waiver is im-24
portant to address a humanitarian need and is con-25 7
•HR 4681 EH
sistent with the national security interests of the 1
United States. 2
(2) B
RIEFING.—Not later than 90 days after 3
the issuance of a waiver under paragraph (1), and 4
every 180 days thereafter while the waiver remains 5
in effect, the President shall brief the appropriate 6
congressional committees on the reasons for the 7
waiver. 8
(f) I
MPLEMENTATION.—The President may exercise 9
all authorities provided under sections 203 and 205 of the 10
International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 11
U.S.C. 1702 and 1704) to carry out this section. 12
(g) R
EGULATIONS.— 13
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The President shall, not 14
later than 120 days after the date of the enactment 15
of this Act, promulgate regulations as necessary for 16
the implementation of this section. 17
(2) N
OTIFICATION TO CONGRESS .—Not later 18
than 10 days before the promulgation of regulations 19
under this subsection, the President shall notify the 20
appropriate congressional committees of the pro-21
posed regulations and the provisions of this section 22
that the regulations are implementing. 23
(h) E
XCEPTIONS.— 24 8
•HR 4681 EH
(1) EXCEPTION FOR INTELLIGENCE ACTIVI -1
TIES.—Sanctions under this section shall not apply 2
to any activity subject to the reporting requirements 3
under title V of the National Security Act of 1947 4
(50 U.S.C. 3091 et seq.) or any authorized intel-5
ligence activities of the United States. 6
(2) E
XCEPTION TO COMPLY WITH INTER -7
NATIONAL OBLIGATIONS AND FOR LAW ENFORCE -8
MENT ACTIVITIES.—Sanctions under this section 9
shall not apply with respect to an alien if admitting 10
or paroling the alien into the United States is nec-11
essary— 12
(A) to permit the United States to comply 13
with the Agreement regarding the Head-14
quarters of the United Nations, signed at Lake 15
Success June 26, 1947, and entered into force 16
November 21, 1947, between the United Na-17
tions and the United States, or other applicable 18
international obligations; or 19
(B) to carry out or assist authorized law 20
enforcement activity in the United States. 21
(i) E
XCEPTIONRELATING TO THEIMPORTATION OF 22
G
OODS.— 23
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The authorities and require-24
ments under this section shall not include the au-25 9
•HR 4681 EH
thority or a requirement to impose sanctions on the 1
importation of goods. 2
(2) G
OOD DEFINED.—In this section, the term 3
‘‘good’’ means any article, natural or manmade sub-4
stance, material, supply, or manufactured product, 5
including inspection and test equipment, and exclud-6
ing technical data. 7
SEC. 5. DETERMINATIONS WITH RESPECT TO THE GOVERN-8
MENT OF SYRIA, HIZBALLAH, AND NETWORKS 9
AFFILIATED WITH THE GOVERNMENT OF 10
SYRIA OR HIZBALLAH. 11
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 12
date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall— 13
(1) determine whether each foreign person de-14
scribed in subsection (b) meets the criteria for sanc-15
tions under this Act; and 16
(2) submit to the appropriate congressional 17
committees a report containing— 18
(A) a list of all foreign persons described 19
in subsection (b) that meet the criteria for im-20
position of sanctions under this Act; 21
(B) for each foreign person identified pur-22
suant to subparagraph (A), a statement of 23
whether sanctions have been imposed or will be 24 10
•HR 4681 EH
imposed within 30 days of the submission of the 1
report; and 2
(C) with respect to any person identified 3
pursuant to subparagraph (A) for whom sanc-4
tions have not been imposed and will not be im-5
posed within 30 days of the submission of the 6
report, the specific authority under which other-7
wise applicable sanctions are being waived, have 8
otherwise been determined not to apply, or are 9
not being imposed and a complete justification 10
of the decision to waive or otherwise not apply 11
such sanctions. 12
(b) F
OREIGNPERSONSDESCRIBED.—The foreign 13
persons described in this subsection are the following: 14
(1) Maher Al Assad. 15
(2) Imad Abu Zureiq. 16
(3) Amer Taysir Khiti. 17
(4) Taher al-Kayyali. 18
(5) Raji Falhout. 19
(6) Mohammed Asif Issa Shalish. 20
(7) Abdellatif Hamid. 21
(8) Mustafa Al Masalmeh. 22
SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS. 23
In this Act: 24 11
•HR 4681 EH
(1) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -1
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-2
mittees’’ means— 3
(A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and 4
the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of 5
Representatives; and 6
(B) the Committee on Foreign Relations, 7
the Committee on Banking, Housing, and 8
Urban Affairs, and the Committee on the Judi-9
ciary of the Senate. 10
(2) C
APTAGON.—The term ‘‘captagon’’ means 11
any compound, mixture, or preparation which con-12
tains any quantity of a stimulant in schedule I or II 13
of section 202 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 14
U.S.C. 812), including— 15
(A) amphetamine, methamphetamine, and 16
fenethylline; 17
(B) any immediate precursor or controlled 18
substance analogue of such a stimulant, as de-19
fined in section 102 of the Controlled Sub-20
stances Act (21 U.S.C. 802); and 21
(C) any isomers, esters, ethers, salts, and 22
salts of isomers, esters, and ethers of such a 23
stimulant, whenever the existence of such iso-24 12
•HR 4681 EH
mers, esters, ethers, and salts is possible within 1
the specific chemical designation. 2
(3) F
OREIGN PERSON.—The term ‘‘foreign per-3
son’’— 4
(A) means an individual or entity that is 5
not a United States person; and 6
(B) includes a foreign state (as such term 7
is defined in section 1603 of title 28, United 8
States Code). 9
(4) I
LLICIT PROLIFERATION.—The term ‘‘illicit 10
proliferation’’ refers to any illicit activity to produce, 11
manufacture, distribute, sell, or knowingly finance or 12
transport. 13
(5) K
NOWINGLY.—The term ‘‘knowingly’’ has 14
the meaning given that term in section 14 of the 15
Iran Sanctions Act of 1996 (Public Law 104–172; 16
50 U.S.C. 1701 note). 17
(6) U
NITED STATES PERSON .—The term 18
‘‘United States person’’ means— 19
(A) a United States citizen; 20
(B) a permanent resident alien of the 21
United States; 22
(C) an entity organized under the laws of 23
the United States or of any jurisdiction within 24 13
•HR 4681 EH
the United States, including a foreign branch of 1
such an entity; or 2
(D) a person in the United States. 3
Passed the House of Representatives April 16, 2024.
Attest:
Clerk. 118
TH
CONGRESS
2
D
S
ESSION
H. R. 4681
AN ACT
To provide for the imposition of sanctions with
respect to illicit captagon trafficking.