Saudi Arabia: nearly 47 million amphetamine pills seized, a record

Nearly 47 million captagon tablets were seized on Wednesday August 31 by authorities in Riyadh.

AFP - -

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

This is the largest seizure of amphetamine pills ever made in Saudi Arabia.

Nearly 47 million tablets were seized on Wednesday August 31 by the authorities in Riyadh.

Eight residents of the kingdom - including six Syrians and two Pakistanis - were arrested for this traffic.

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With our correspondent in the Gulf,

Nicolas Keraudren

The announcement was carefully staged in a video posted on official Saudi social media with the caption "war on drugs".

We see the investigators, hooded, discover amphetamine pills hidden in packets of flour against a background of martial music.

In total, nearly 47 million tablets were seized during this operation in a warehouse in Riyadh.

The statement from the authorities, however, does not specify the origin of the shipment, or whether it is captagon tablets.

Saudi authorities said yesterday they thwarted an attempt to smuggle 47 million 😮 😮 #captagon pills into the country, describing it as the largest ever drug trafficking operation in the kingdom.

🇸🇦@AFP https://t.co/L1p7yxYFFt pic.twitter.com/XCJmjrRyhr

— Jean-Marc Mojon (@mojobeirut) September 1, 2022

A real plague

The crisis linked to this derivative of amphetamine is in any case a real scourge in the kingdom because seizures are frequent.

Last Tuesday August 30, the ambassador of Saudi Arabia in Beirut affirmed that more than 700 million tablets of narcotic products

coming from Lebanon

or having passed through this country have been seized on Saudi territory since 2015.

This traffic has had an impact on relations between the two countries.

In April 2021, Saudi Arabia notably decided to ban all imports of fresh produce from Lebanon.

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  • Saudi Arabia

  • Dope

  • Lebanon