It’s potentially the biggest seizure of amphetamines in history — and it allegedly comes from a source that might surprise many people.
Key points:
- Captagon is a stimulant sometimes referred to as ‘the drug of Jihad’
- It is popular in the Middle East, including in war-torn areas
- Reports say IS was trying to sell the drug to fund militant activities
Italian police have discovered 14 tonnes of the drug Captagon hidden inside machinery and paper cylinders, on container ships in the port of Salerno.
They say the stimulant drugs were allegedly produced in Syria by the Islamic State (IS) group, and had a street value of about 1 billion euros ($1.6 billion).
Captagon, a brand name for the amphetamine drug fenethylline hydrochloride, was originally marketed as a treatment for conditions like narcolepsy, depression and hyperactivity, but has been banned in most countries since the 1980s.
Counterfeit versions of the drug have remained popular in the Middle East, where its fear-inhibiting and stimulating effects have also proved useful during protracted firefights in war-torn areas — it is not, however, widely used in Europe.
Reports in recent years have suggested that Syria has become a major production area for counterfeit Captagon pills, including by IS, which Italian authorities said was seeking to sell the drugs