PARIS: French customs officials said Tuesday that they had intercepted 135 kilograms (300 pounds) of Captagon, dubbed the “jihadists’ drug”, at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport this year, a first for France. Captagon, a type of amphetamine, is one of the most commonly used drugs among fighters in the Syrian war. “It is the first time that this drug has been seized in France,” the customs agency said in a statement.
Customs officials at Charles de Gaulle discovered 350,000 Captagon pills weighing 70 kilograms on Jan. 4 hidden among industrial moulds exported from Lebanon and apparently heading for the Czech Republic. An investigation was launched by German and Czech authorities “and it revealed that the real intended destination was Saudi Arabia, by passing through Turkey”, the agency said. Another 67 kilograms of the drug were found at the airport in February, hidden in steel molds.
Captagon is classified by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime as an “amphetamine-type stimulant” and usually blends amphetamines, caffeine and other substances. Fighters who have taken the drug say it helps them to stay up for days and numbs the senses, allowing them to kill with abandon.
