DAMASCUS: The Syrian interior ministry said Monday it seized about 12 million captagon stimulant pills in a raid on a drug smuggling network operating near Damascus.
The seizure marks one of the largest drug busts since the transitional authority assumed power in late 2024.
Following “precise monitoring and tracking of a smuggling network attempting to traffic large quantities of narcotics abroad,” security forces seized “around 12 million captagon pills in the Al-Dumayr area,” Brig. Gen. Khaled Eid, director of the Anti-Narcotics Department, said in a ministry statement.
The leader of the network was arrested during the operation, according to Eid.
The confiscated drugs will be destroyed.
The operation reflects the department’s “determined approach to combating smuggling, cutting off its sources, and prosecuting” those involved in drug trafficking.
Captagon, which is similar to an amphetamine, became Syria’s largest export during the civil war that erupted in 2011, with its trade serving as a key funding source for the government of ousted president Bashar Assad.
Since Assad’s fall, the new authorities have reported numerous major seizures of agon across the country. However, neighboring countries continue to report the interception of large shipments.