TOPLINE
Police in Italy found a record 15 tons of amphetamines worth $ 1.12 billion at an Italian port that they say was produced by the ISIS terror group and likely will be distributed in Europe by organized crime groups.
Syrian police show Captagon pills seized in Damascus, an illegal substance that has flourished in … [+]
KEY FACTS
According to investigators, 84 million Captagon drug pills were found inside industrial products aboard three container ships in the port of Salerno on Wednesday.
Authorities told CNN that the boats were stopped and searched after intercepting calls from a local organized crime group awaiting dispatch.
The researchers said it is the largest drug raid in world history, both in physical size and in cost of the route.
Police believe the drugs were destined for European distribution by multiple organized crime groups, and said the seized load was large enough to satisfy drug appetite across the continent.
Captagon is a brand of phenetylline hydrochloride, a stimulant originally developed to treat narcolepsy and depression that is popular in the Middle East, according to Reuters, which the Islamic State produces and sells for financing.
Captagon is known to provide people who take it with bursts of energy, and ISIS fighters themselves have reportedly taken it to “inhibit fear and pain,” according to a statement by the researchers, known as the “Jihad drug”.
KEY FUND
Just two weeks ago, police found one million Captagon capsules and more than 6,000 pounds of hashish being smuggled through the same port in Salerno. Authorities in Italy said they believe Covid-19 blockades across Europe have thrown a key in the illegal production and distribution of drugs across the continent. Traffickers may have been forced to import drugs from Syria, they said, which is now the world’s largest producer of amphetamines.
