In the Gulf, captagon seizures are commonplace. On Friday January 14, more than 8 million tablets of this amphetamine derivative were seized in Saudi Arabia. Captagon has become one of the most abused drugs in the kingdom.
With our regional correspondent, Nicolas Keraudren
This is yet another captagon seizure in Saudi Arabia. The announcement was carefully staged in a video posted on social media by Saudi Customs.
We see the investigators open two containers at the port of Jeddah and then discover captagon pills hidden in fake onions. A total of 8.3 million pills of this amphetamine derivative were seized.
The captagon crisis is a real plague in the kingdom. Since 190 million tablets had already been seized during various operations carried out last year.
Last April, Saudi Arabia banned imports of fresh produce from Lebanon. This time, tablets of captagon had then been discovered in fake oranges.
The Saudi authorities had denounced the lack of control on the part of the Lebanese security forces. Soon after, other Gulf countries backed the move by threatening to impose similar measures.
To fight against this traffic, Saudi Customs has also set up a special number and an email address. For any report, the “whistleblower” is financially rewarded.
►Read again: In Lebanon, seizure of millions of captagon tablets in fake oranges