JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia’s counter-narcotics authorities have foiled an attempt to smuggle nearly 12 million amphetamine pills through the port in Jeddah.
The Kingdom’s General Directorate of Narcotics Control said on Wednesday that the 11.9 million pills were hidden inside a shipping container of building materials at Jeddah Islamic Port. The pills were concealed behind gypsum boards, SPA reported.
The seizure was a joint security effort with the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority as part of ongoing counter-narcotics operations to crack down on criminal networks and smuggling activity to the Kingdom.
Authorities did not announce any arrests in connection with the case. Several attempts to smuggle large quantities of Captagon, a type of amphetamine, have been foiled at Jeddah port in recent years.
In March, authorities thwarted an attempt to smuggle nearly 2.5 million amphetamine pills through Jeddah and announced the arrest of several people in the case, who included a Syrian national, two other expatriates and two Saudi citizens.
Captagon is used by young men and teenage boys across the Middle East and has a lucrative street value of between $10 and $25 a pill, according to research by the International Addiction Review Journal.
In 2023, an investigation — “The Kingdom vs Captagon” — carried out by the Arab News Research and Studies Unit, revealed that the Syrian regime and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon were the primary sources of the drugs being smuggled to Saudi Arabia and the Arab region.
