Saudi Arabia seizes 5 million Captagon pills in latest bust

DUBAI — Saudi authorities foiled an attempt to smuggle more than 5 million amphetamine tablets into the country in a shipment of stones through a Jeddah seaport Monday.

The Saudi Ministry of Interior’s General Directorate of Narcotics Control (GDNC) made the announcement, the latest in a series of nearly weekly drug busts in the kingdom for transporting, selling and promoting drug use.

What happened: Saudi Arabia’s GDNC and customs authority found 5,280,000 pills of fenethyllin, an amphetamine marketed under the brand name Captagon, concealed within a shipment of stones and building supplies, according to a Monday tweet from both government agencies. 

Six people were arrested while receiving the shipment in Riyadh and Jeddah. They included one citizen each from Syria, Sudan and Saudi Arabia along with three others whose nationalities were not identified. 

The GDNC also announced that it had apprehended five Saudi citizens promoting the use of amphetamines in the north of the country. 

“ضربة تتلوها ضربات
لن ينجو منها مروجو ومهربو المخدرات”.#الحرب_على_المخدرات#بالمرصاد

pic.twitter.com/vRVhEpBFTF

— مكافحة المخدرات (@Mokafha_SA) May 1, 2023

Why it matters: Saudi Arabia has ramped up arrests of drug users, sellers and smugglers since March as part of a campaign to eliminate the black market’s financing sources.

There is a multi-billion-dollar black market for Captagon, which in recent years has been regionally manufactured along the Syrian-Lebanese border, according to the Washington-based Arab Center. The highly addictive substance travels through Jordan to reach Gulf states, where it has become a drug of choice among disenfranchised young people, particularly in Saudi Arabia. 

Jordan’s King Abdullah II concluded a three-day trip in April to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, where he met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in Jeddah and UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed. The burden of the Captagon trade, experts told Al-Monitor, was likely one of the main topics discussed during this trip, along with efforts to normalize relations with Syria. 

The Arab Center said that large-scale seizures of Captagon are common but have done little to weaken the industry because state authorities tend to pursue the supply side of the issue without much attention to the demand.

Background: Amphetamines are classified as stimulant drugs that speed up messages between the brain and the body and are used to treat conditions like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and narcolepsy. They are highly addictive and dangerous when abused.

Last Tuesday, Saudi authorities seized more than 12.7 million tablets hidden in a shipment of pomegranates at the Jeddah Islamic port. 

In March, the kingdom seized 4.6 million pills hidden in a shipment of ceramic toilets, sinks and wash basins and arrested a Jordanian national.