Syria announces seizure of 12 million Captagon pills

By AFP 21 October 2025, 1:35 am

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A member of the security forces with Syria's new government stands over pills of Captagon, a brand name of the psychostimulant drug Fenethylline, inside a warehouse that used to hide pills inside children's toys, hookahs, house doors and plastic insulation, during a raid in Latakia on January 19, 2025. (AAREF WATAD / AFP)

The Syrian interior ministry says 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,” Brigadier General Khaled Eid, director of the Anti-Narcotics Department, says 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 al-Assad. Since Assad’s fall, the new authorities have reported numerous major seizures across the country. However, neighboring countries continue to report the interception of large shipments.