LONDON: Syrian authorities seized 800,000 captagon pills and 60 kg of cannabis in the provinces of Homs and Deir Ezzor, the Interior Ministry said.
The Syrian Drug Enforcement Administration, in coordination with Iraq’s General Directorate for Narcotics Affairs and Psychotropic Substances, arrested several suspects who formed a cross-border criminal gang. The drugs were intended for smuggling and distribution in the region, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency.
Authorities in the Syrian Arab Republic and Iraq have conducted multiple coordinated operations to combat drug gangs since the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime in December 2024. In April, they arrested eight people, including one woman, in the countryside of Damascus and Homs, and seized 1.73 million captagon pills.
Under the former president Assad, Syria became a hub for the production and distribution of illegal drugs such as captagon, while the government largely ignored the concerns of neighboring countries about the negative effects that this was having on the region.
