ROME: A source in the Guardia di Finanza, the Italian financial police, in Salerno has told Arab News that 15 tons of Captagon amphetamine seized in July in Naples “came from Syria and could be Hezbollah is affiliated with the Lebanese group Hezbollah, even though we are still investigating. “
On July 1, the Guardia di Finanza ordered the largest seizure of amphetamines in the world containing over 84 million Captagon tablets – weighing 14 tons and valued at more than € 1 billion ($ 1.2 billion) – going from Syria to European markets, where the production of synthetic drugs could have taken an unexpected blow from the COVID-19 lockout.
Captagon is known by some as the “drug ISIS” after studies revealed that the amphetamine was used by Daesh fighters to keep them on their toes at battles.
The trade name for the synthetic stimulant fenethylline, Captagon, was first coined in the 1960s to treat depression, narcolepsy and depression, but was banned in most cases. of countries before the 1980s because it was considered too addictive. It is very popular in the Middle East.
The drug is cheap and simple to extract, using products that are easy and often legal to obtain. It sells for around € 15 per album.
When captured in Italy, the plates were hidden in large paper and steel cylinders and transported to the port of Salerno, in southern Italy.
The Guardia di Finanza had told Italian reporters that the amphetamine pills seized in Salerno had a symbol: Two half-moons – the same symbols found on Captagon Captured in the hiding places of Daesh in the Middle East.
The symbol was also found on the records eaten by the terrorists before the 2015 attack on the Bataclan in Paris.
This led Italian police to believe that the drugs seized in Salerno may have been seized by men linked to Daesh to fund their terrorist efforts.
However, in recent weeks, investigators have been following a new direction that could lead them to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“There may be a connection, but we are still investigating the situation and expect new developments,” a source in the Guardia di Finanza told Arab News.
Investigators have no doubt that the Neapolitan workers, known as the Camorra, were finding the Salerno passengers.
“The move must be behind the drug trade of these allowances. A drug of € 1 billion cannot reach a port without the knowledge of the mafia, ”Franco Roberti, the former Italian high prosecutor against the Mafia, told Arab News.
Captagon pills seized in Salerno were fired by police last week at a special waste management facility in Ravenna, in northern Italy. The 16 tons of drugs were transported on a convoy by armed vehicles and helicopters.
The firing process took a full day under tight security with over 100 police guarding the site.