Dubai: Saudi Arabia has thwarted an attempt to smuggle around 15 million amphetamine tablets through Jeddah Islamic Port, local media reported.
According to the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA), 14,976,000 tablets were found concealed in a commercial consignment coming from abroad.
The smuggled quantity, according to the investigation, was cleverly hidden in a machine used to make concrete blocks.
As a result, the ZTCA alerted the security forces, who, after tracking down the address of the lone benefactor, arrested him.
Saudi Arabia regularly announces seizures of captagon. The drug usually comes from Syria and transits through Lebanon in cargo such as fruit and vegetables.
Last year, the kingdom’s customs authority said it seized a total of 119 million pills, and figures so far for 2022 show trafficking of the drug is continuing to rise.
The vast majority of captagon, which derives its name from a once legal drug against narcolepsy, is produced in Syria and Lebanon and smuggled to its main consumer market in the Gulf.
