MUMBAI, India: Indian police have seized 227 kilograms of the powerful synthetic stimulant captagon worth nearly US$19 million, the country's first seizure of the drug, the interior minister said on Saturday (May 16).
Anti-narcotics officers also arrested a Syrian national, who the ministry said was a member of an "international drug syndicate".
Captagon is little known in India, and the ministry said the drugs had been smuggled into the country in a container from Syria "with sheep wool as a declared consignment", a statement said.
"Preliminary investigation has revealed that the seized consignment was intended for transshipment to the Gulf region, particularly Saudi Arabia and neighbouring Middle Eastern countries," it said.
The drug became Syria's largest export during the civil war that erupted in 2011, with its trade serving as a key funding source for the government of ousted president Bashar al-Assad.
Syrian authorities have reported numerous major seizures of captagon since Assad's fall.
Neighbouring countries also continue to report the interception of large shipments.
"Our agencies have achieved the first-ever seizure of captagon, the so-called 'jihadi drug'," Home Minister Amit Shah said in a statement posted on social media.
"We will clamp down on every gram of drugs entering India or leaving the country using our territory as the transit route," he said.
Officers first seized 31.5 kg of captagon tablets after searching a house in the capital New Delhi on May 11.
It said the tablets had been "carefully concealed in a commercial chapati (flat bread) cutting machine which preliminary investigation suggests was intended for export to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia".
After questioning the Syrian national, anti-narcotics agents then raided a container at Mundra port in the western state of Gujarat, seizing a further 196 kg of captagon.
"This operation... exposes attempts by international syndicates to use India as a transit hub," the ministry said. - AFP
