Stands laden with cans of contraband gasoline lined the streets of central Sweida. Yellow for Syrian fuel, blue for Lebanese. The very public display of this black market has become a feature of the Druze city in southern Syria, as have the weekly demonstrations against the central government. They are symptoms of the economic crisis and abandonment from which this region bordering Jordan suffers, having become a land of trafficking of all kinds, and the kingdom of mafia and criminal gangs.

"Syria is in a bad way, but here, far from everything, we're in an even worse way," summed up one resident. Here, more than 100 kilometers south of Damascus, amid hills of black volcanic rock and vineyards that produce an arak served on every table in the capital, "it's the Wild West. You can say anything, do anything, it's a mess. There's no government in Sweida," added Walid (like the other witnesses quoted, he did not wish to give his surname and his first name has been changed). This 33-year-old Druze started selling contraband petrol two years ago.

Like many young graduates, after completing his studies as an electrician and giving six years of his life to the army, which was tasked with retaking territories that had fallen into the hands of the Syrian opposition, Walid hasn't found a job in the field he trained in. After 13 years of civil war (since 2011), under boycott and sanctions from the major powers, Syria is sinking into economic crisis. The province of Sweida, with its 770,000 inhabitants, has not escaped unemployment, which affects 75% of young people.

The gasoline business is an easy stopgap. Walid buys subsidized gasoline quotas from people who receive them from the state, at a rate of 23,000 Syrian pounds (nearly €40) per liter, and resells them at 25,000 Syrian pounds per liter to those for whom the 50 liters of gasoline allocated each month are not enough. Through this trade, he pockets between one and 1.5 million Syrian pounds a month, enough to pay his rent, bills, food and cigarettes. "I don't put anything aside. Everything has become very expensive in the last four years," said Walid.

Clashes and vendettas

The business is not without risk. It is run by the mafias that have flourished in the city, which has been left to anarchy, organized crime and violence. "There aren't really any security forces left in Sweida. Everyone makes their own laws. Everyone has a gun. As soon as an argument breaks out, it's not long before the guns come out. You're afraid of getting hit by a stray bullet. You feel constantly unsafe. It's 10% of the residents who generate all this crime, the others are afraid and are calling for order to be restored," said one resident.

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