![](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/QLQVR3YJBRDGXIVE23DZK7IWOA.jpg&w=1200)
Sanctions crushed Syria’s elite. So they built a zombie economy fueled by drugs.
KOM AL-RAF, JORDAN On clear days, the Syrian villages along the border here look deceptively empty. The Jordanian soldiers peering north across no man’s land see only dusty ghost towns where nothing moves except feral dogs and an occasional farmer working …