RIYADH: Saudi officers prevented the largest drug trafficking operation the country had ever seen from bringing in 47 million amphetamine pills.When the wheat shipment containing the pills landed at a dry dock in the Saudi city of Riyadh and was brought to a warehouse, two Pakistanis and six Syrians were detained in a raid.
It was the “largest operation of its kind to import this amount of narcotics into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in one operation,” the Saudi General Directorate of Narcotics Control said in a statement.The story didn’t clarify whether or whether the pills were captagon, the amphetamine causing havoc throughout the Middle East, or where they originated.
Captagon tablets are mostly made in Syria and trafficked into the Gulf’s major consumer markets. Captagon trade in the Middle East increased rapidly in 2021 to surpass $5 billion, posing a growing risk to the region’s health and security.The largest captagon market is Saudi Arabia, where customs officials last year seized 119 million of the drugs.
