Italy confiscates 14 tons of "jihadist drugs"

Italian police have confiscated 14 tons of captagon amphetamines, the so-called "jihadist drug", in an operation in the port city of Salerno, southeast of Naples, the Guardia di Finanza said in a statement Wednesday. 

It is "the largest amphetamine confiscation ever made in the world", carried out in compliance with an order issued by the Naples prosecutor's office, the note reads. "Record seizure of 14 tons of amphetamines: 84 million pills produced in Syria" by the terrorist group Daesh "to finance terrorism. More than 1 billion euros in market value," published the Guardia di Finanza on social networks. 

The Italian police confiscated three suspicious containers that had arrived at the port of Salerno and contained industrial paper cylinders and machinery, it said. The paper cylinders, approximately 2 meters high and with a diameter of 140 centimeters, probably manufactured in Germany, had been designed with multiple layers that hid the content, stored in the internal areas. Each cylinder contained approximately 350 kilograms of tablets.  

In total, 14 tons of amphetamines have been found, with 84 million pills with the captagon symbol, which is the brand name under which a mixture of amphetamine and caffeine is marketed that functions as a psychostimulant and inhibits pain and feelings of fear. 

It is known as "the jihadists' drug" because of the alleged use of it by the fighters of the Daesh terrorist group. The Italian police stress that Daesh "finances its terrorist attacks, above all, with the trafficking of synthetic drugs, produced mainly in Syria, which has become the world's leading producer of amphetamines in recent years". 

The Guardia di Finanza stresses that two weeks ago another container was found in the port of Salerno with counterfeit clothes, 2,800 kilos of hashish and 190 kilos of amphetamine, also with the symbol of the captagon. The police are carrying out further investigations to identify those responsible who, given the large quantity seized, "could be operating on behalf of some Camorra clan (Neapolitan mafia) that markets these substances internationally".