Syria Says foiled Attempt to Smuggle out 4 million Captagon Tablets

A member of the security forces of the new Syrian authorities shows Captagon pills found in a compound of the ousted president Bashar al-Assad's forces in Damascus on January 7, 2025. (File/AFP)

Syrian authorities on Monday announced that they had thwarted an attempt to smuggle out four million tablets of captagon, an amphetamine-like narcotic that has flooded the region.
The interior ministry said in a statement that authorities seized “over four million captagon tablets that were tightly hidden inside industrial equipment designed for manufacturing flour used for human consumption.”
It said they had acted on “accurate information received from our sources about a shipment of drugs hidden inside industrial equipment prepared for smuggling outside the country.”
Under Assad’s rule, captagon became Syria’s largest export during the civil war that erupted in 2011 and a key source of illicit funding for his government, according to AFP.
Since Assad’s ouster last December, the new authorities have discovered millions of captagon pills in warehouses and on military bases.
The interior ministry said those involved in the latest operation have been “arrested, the equipment containing the drugs has been seized, and the arrested individuals have been referred for investigation based on a decision issued by the public prosecution.”