(VIDEO) Blitz GdF Naples, biggest seizure of amphetamines in the world: $1B worth of pills from ISIS in Syria
This is the largest seizure of amphetamines in the world, carried out by the neapolitan Guardia di Finanza in execution of a specific search decree issued by the Public Prosecutor of Naples – DDA and developed as part of a complex investigation activity delegated to the GICO (anti mafia investigative unit ) against a network of criminal groups aiming to import a huge amount of drugs for european consumers.
After the lockdown period, due to the epidemiological emergency from covid 19, in fact, law enforcement activities have been intensified in the specific sector. From the development of the clues that emerged during the investigation and particularly from other seizures previously made, the guardia di finanza tracked 3 suspect containers shipped to the port of Salerno, allegedly containing paper cylinders for industrial and machinery use.
After the seizure, the GICO of NAPLES moved the containers to an equipped factory to carry out the internal inspection, with the help of specialized technicians and with the precious collaboration by the Anti-fraud unit of the Salerno Customs Agency.
The paper cylinders, about 2 meters high and 140 cm in diameter – likely built in Germany – were designed in multilayer in order to conceal the drugs. A perfect wall against the scan detection. In the inner layers, about 350 kg of tablets per cylinder were stored (40 cylinders checked). A total of 14 tons of amphetamines have been found, which means 84 million tablets, bearing the symbol of the “captagon” which distinguishes the “Jihad drug”.made by ISIS. It is known, in fact, that ISIS / DAESH finance its own terrorist activities especially by means of drug trafficking, the synthetic ones massively produced in Syria, which has become for this reason in recent years the first world producer of amphetamines.
The captagon is marketed throughout the Middle East and then widespread both among fighters to inhibit fear and pain and among civilians as a fatigue reluef. Initially produced mainly in Lebanon and widespread in Saudi Arabia in the 90s, this drug has also been used by terrorists in the attack to Bataclan on Paris in 2015 – thus becoming the “Isis drug” or “Jihad drug”.
According to the American DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration), ISIS makes extensive use of it in all the territories over which it has influence. Once the chemical plants of production are set, ISIS can easily produce large amounts of tablets for the world market of synthetic drugs, and therefore quickly funding their terror plots.
Two weeks ago, still in the port of Salerno, the specialists of the Organized Crime Investigation Group (GICO) of the Economic and Financial Police of Naples, detected and seized another container with a roofing load consisting of counterfeited clothing, hiding 2,800 kg of hashish and 190 kg of amphetamines (over 1 million tablets) with the very same symbol (captagon).
As for the final dealer, no single criminal group can afford a 1-billion purchase, so the investigators think about a “Consortium” of criminal groups, both for the total value of shipments, and for distribution on the reference markets (85 million tablets can satisfy a European market).
The hypothesis is that during the lockdown, due to the emergency worldwide epidemiology, the production and distribution of drugs in Europe has practically stopped and therefore to the recovery many traffickers, even in consortium, have turned to Syria, whose production does not seem to have slowed down.
Further investigations are ongoing to identify all the entities linked to this extraordinary seizure.
