Saudi Arabia finds 4 million amphetamine tablets hidden in shipment of peppers

Five people involved in the smuggling attempt were arrested

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  Saudi Arabia has thwarted an attempt to smuggle nearly 4 million amphetamine pills hidden in a shipment of bell peppers, it announced on Wednesday. SPA

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  “The security monitoring of drug smuggling networks targeting the kingdom and its youth have led to the foiling of an attempt to smuggle 3,989,000 amphetamine tablets,” said Mohammed Al Nujaidi of the General Directorate of Narcotics Control. SPA

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  Five people attempting to receive the shipment have been arrested in the city of Riyadh and the province of Jeddah. SPA

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  The five — three Syrians, an Egyptian and a Saudi citizen — were referred to prosecutors for investigation. SPA

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  On August 31, Saudi officers thwarted an attempt to smuggle 47 million amphetamine pills into the country, state media reported, describing it as the largest ever drug trafficking operation in the kingdom. AFP

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  The Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority previously thwarted an attempt to smuggle nearly 15 million pills through Jeddah Islamic Port. Photo: Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority

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  An officer of the Saudi Arabian Directorate of Narcotics Control empties a bag of Captagon tablets seized during a special operation in March. AFP

Saudi authorities have thwarted an attempt to smuggle almost 4 million amphetamine tablets into the kingdom, its General Directorate of Narcotics Control said on Wednesday.

The seized narcotic pills were hidden inside a shipment of peppers, said the directorate's spokesman Mohammed Al Nujaidi.

“The security monitoring of drug smuggling networks targeting the kingdom and its youth have led to the foiling of an attempt to smuggle 3,989,000 amphetamine tablets,” he said, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

Five people attempting to receive the shipment have been arrested in the city of Riyadh and the province of Jeddah, the spokesman said.

The five — three Syrians, an Egyptian and a Saudi citizen — were referred to prosecutors for investigation.

The security operation was carried out in coordination with the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority.

It is not immediately clear where the shipment arrived from.

Captagon — a synthetic amphetamine first developed in the 1960s as a treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder — has become one of the most widely used drugs among young substance abusers in Saudi Arabia.

Lebanon and Syria are the biggest producers of Captagon tablets that make it into the kingdom. Some illegal factories are in Jordan, where authorities in 2018 dismantled a laboratory producing the drug.

Captagon in pictures

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  According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, trafficking in amphetamines has increased in the Middle East in recent years. Photo: Dubai Customs

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  Specially trained K-9 units are often used by border forces to intercept shipments. EPA

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  Experts believe the amount intercepted accounts for only around a tenth of the total quantity of pills being smuggled out of places like Syria and Jordan. EPA

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  Dubai Customs thwarted 398 attempts to smuggle drugs into the city in the first three months of this year. Photo: Dubai Customs

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  Captagon pills on display after being seized in Greece in 2019. EPA

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  Captagon became synonymous with the Syrian Civil War. AFP

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  The small, off-white pills have quickly become one of the most widely consumed drugs in the Middle East. EPA

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  Millions of Captagon pills are seized around the world each year. EPA

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  Captagon pills on display after a major interception of a shipment in 2009. Nicole Hill / The National

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  Customs officers say Captagon smugglers prefer to use sea ports rather than airports because of the size of shipping containers, enabling them to conceal larger quantities of drugs. Photo: Dubai Customs