Hezbollah might be involved in smuggling of drugs into Italy

Amira al-Sharif

Italian finance police had seized 15 tons of the Captagon amphetamine drug in July in Naples.

It said the consignment had come from Syria and could be linked to Lebanese group Hezbollah.

It said it had claimed the biggest seizure of amphetamines in the world as it intercepted more than 84 million Captagon tablets — weighing 14 tons and with a value of more than €1 billion ($1.2 billion) — heading from Syria to European markets, where synthetic drug production may have taken an unexpected hit from the COVID-19 lockdown.

Captagon is known by some as the “ISIS drug” after investigations revealed the amphetamine was used by ISIS fighters to keep them on their feet during battles.

The trademark name for the synthetic stimulant fenethylline, Captagon, was first produced in the 1960s to treat hyperactivity, narcolepsy and depression, but was banned in most countries by the 1980s as it was deemed too addictive. It remains hugely popular in the Middle East

The drug is cheap and simple to produce, using ingredients that are easy and often legal to obtain. It sells for roughly €15 a tablet.

When they were seized in Italy, the tablets were hidden in large paper and steel cylinders and transported to the port of Salerno, in southern Italy.

A police source said the amphetamine pills seized in Salerno had a symbol on them: Two half-moons — the same symbols found on Captagon seized in ISIS hideouts in the Middle East.