Jordan Customs seize 6M Captagon pills on its Iraqi border

 The Jordanian Customs Department seized one of its largest hauls of illegal drugs ever, stopping 6 million pills of Captagon at the border of Iraq.

Officials found the pills being smuggled in shipments of fruit paste aboard two semi-trailers.

Captagon, a brand name for fenethylline hydrochloride, is a highly-addictive amphetamine drug that is known worldwide but is especially prevalent in the Middle East. The synthetic drug is a stimulant that is largely produced in Europe and trafficked into the Middle East through Turkey, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

"It is one of the most popular drugs of abuse among the young affluent populations of the Middle East," the Justice Department said.

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No details have been made public about how many people were arrested in the bust or where the pills were to be delivered.

Small doses of the drug cause an elevated heart rate, body temperature, respiration and blood pressure. It can have several long-term side effects including depression, lack of sleep and cardiovascular damage.

It was originally produced in Germany and sold as a treatment for conditions such as depression and narcolepsy. Larger shipments have been intercepted elsewhere, such as 93 million pills that were seized in Malaysia in 2021. Jordan has captured more than 50 million pills this year.

A 2021 report by The Guardian suggests Captagon has ties to highly-visible figures in Syria.

"The manufacture of Captagon in the regime heartland has become one of Syria's only recent business success stories; a growth industry so big and sophisticated that it is starting to rival the GDP of the flatlining economy itself," the story reads.

In 2021, a report from humanitarian nonprofit organization Citizens Organization For Advocacy and Resilience said Syria is a "narco state" that exported about $3.24 billion in illegal drugs in 2020.

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"Although Captagon trafficking was once among the funding streams utilized by anti-state armed groups, consolidation of territorial control has enabled the Assad regime and its key regional allies to cement their role as the prime beneficiaries of the Syrian narcotics trade," COAR said.