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01 July 2020 Fourteen tons of amphetamine, about 84 million tablets with the "Captagon" logo, known as "the drug of Isis" or "the drug of Jihad". It is the largest seizure worldwide of this type of substances that was carried out in the port of Salerno by the Gico (Organized crime investigation group) of the Guardia di Finanza of Naples in execution of a search decree issued by the prosecutor of Naples - District Directorate anti-mafia after long and complex investigations into an organization with international projections. The drug - for a market value of over a billion euros - was hidden in paper cylinders for industrial use inside three containers also containing machinery. As is known, ISIS finances its activities also and above all with the trafficking of synthetic drugs, produced largely in Syria, which has become the leading world producer of amphetamines in recent years.

 After tracing and seizing the three suspect containers arriving at the port of Salerno, the Fiamme Gialle transferred them to an equipped place to carry out the inspection with the help of specialized technicians and with the collaboration of the Anti-Fraud Section of the Customs Agency of Salerno. The cylinders, 2 meters high and with a diameter of 140 centimeters - probably made in Germany - have been designed in multilayers able to conceal from the "scanner" the content, stored in the inner layers, of about 350 kg of tablets per cylinder.

 The Captagon is sold throughout the Middle East and is widespread both among fighters to inhibit fear and pain and among civilians because it does not make fatigue felt. Initially produced mainly in Lebanon and widespread in Saudi Arabia in the 1990s, this amazing substance reappeared in terrorist lairs - such as in the attack on the Bataclan in Paris in 2015 - and was therefore nicknamed the "Isis drug" or the "Jihad drug". According to the US Drug enforcement administration (Goddess), ISIS makes extensive use of it in all the territories over which it exercises influence and controls its sale.

 Once the chemical production plants have been started, it is easy for Isis to produce large quantities of them also for the world market, in order to quickly accumulate large loans. Already two weeks ago, still in the port of Salerno, the specialists of the Gico del Nucleo of the economic and financial police of Naples had intercepted a container with a roofing load consisting of counterfeit clothing, containing 2,800 kg of hashish and 190 kg of amphetamines (over a million tablets) always with the Captagon logo. "It is likely - investigators explain - that a" consortium "of criminal groups is involved, both for the total value of the shipments and for the distribution on the reference markets (84 million tablets can satisfy a market of European size). L "The hypothesis is that during the lockdown the production and distribution of synthetic drugs in Europe practically stopped and that therefore many traffickers, even in consortium, turned to Syria, whose production does not seem to have slowed down". Further investigations are underway to identify those responsible who could operate on behalf of a "cartel" of Camorra clans capable of marketing substances internationally.