The amphetamine-type stimulant tablets have been hidden in apple crates and seized at Al Qaim crossing between Syria’s Deir Ezzor province and western Iraq’s Anbar desert area.
(Iraq Border Authority through AFP)
Iraqi authorities have stated they seized three million tablets of captagon, an amphetamine-type stimulant that has been sweeping the Center East for years, close to the Syrian border.
The tablets had been hidden in apple crates “loaded onto a fridge truck” and found at Al Qaim crossing between Syria’s Deir Ezzor province and western Iraq’s Anbar desert area, the Iraqi border authority stated on Saturday.
The truck driver had been arrested, the company added in a press release.
A border authority official instructed the AFP information company on situation of anonymity that the cargo from Syria into Iraq contained captagon tablets produced by a number of producers.
Iraqi safety forces have intensified narcotics operations in current months, with a number of high-profile drug seizures reported.
Sharing borders with Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait and different nations, Iraq has served as a significant conduit for traffickers of captagon, which is primarily produced in Syria and has its largest market in Gulf Arab states.
The sale and use of medication in Iraq has soared in recent times.
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In June, Iraqi safety forces stated that they had pressured down a microlight plane close to the Kuwaiti border headed to the emirate from Iran with a million captagon tablets.
Weeks earlier, Iraqi police introduced that they had seized greater than six million tablets of the stimulant in a significant drug bust.
Areas in central and southern Iraq bordering Iran have change into main narcotic trafficking routes for medicine, together with crystal methamphetamine.
The Inside Ministry’s anti-drug unit in December 2021 named the neighbouring provinces of Basra and Maysan because the “main southern provinces when it comes to trafficking and consumption”.
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Supply: AFP